City Council - Regular Meeting

May they be selfless, kind, compassionate, and wise in their discussions and decisions for this city and all of her residents. We know it's difficult to listen to thousands of opinions and needs and wants and wishes, so we pray for clear discernment, level heads, and open hearts, full of patience and joy. In all this we pray in your name, amen.

Thank you, Reverend. Now please join me in the Pledges of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And now for the Texas Pledge.

Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible.

Thank you. Please be seated. All right, we'll call the meeting to order at 7.02 p.m. The first item of business this evening is item 2A, presentation of winners of the annual photography contest sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Commission. I believe we have Laura Turner and members of our Arts and Humanities Commission. I'd like to invite you all down to the front to make that presentation.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Laura Turner, staff liaison for the Arts and Humanities Commission. I have with me Michelle Stout-Wright, Stella Hunter and Catherine Crenshaw who are also members of the Arts and Humanities Commission. The commission hosts an annual photography contest open to everyone in the Garland and Rockwall Independent School District areas. Photographs must be taken in the City of Rowlett within one year of contest entry date and only one entry is allowed per participant per category. This evening we will present $50 award checks to second place winners, $150 award checks to first place winners, and $200 award checks to a best of show recipient. All 42 of the entries submitted will be on display at the Rowlett Public Library until October 9th. So we will start with an acknowledgement of the honorable mention and third place recipients.

Sorry, I didn't know if you wanted to read this.

Honorable Mention in the Things category goes to Zaniah Howard for Drip, Drop, Drip. Honorable Mention in the Places category goes to Aurora Richardson for Winter in Bloom. Honorable Mention in the Places category goes to April Balmer for The Brass Package. Honorable mention in the places category goes to Linda Olmsted for Time to Reflect. Honorable mention in the people category goes to April Balmer for His Final Walk. Third place in the things category goes to Rebecca Henry for Love Blossoms at Rambling Rose. Third place in the places category goes to Nestle Fudge for Leafless Tower. Third place in the People category goes to Sherelle Jordan for Not Ready Yet. And now we have the award checks for Second, First, and Best of Show. Second place in the Things category goes to Annalise Martinez for Over the Hill.

Come on up, Annalise.

Second place in the Places category goes to Rebecca Henry for Texas Sky Ball. Second place in the People category goes to Daria Stewart for Three Rainbows. Come on down, Daria. And now first place in the Things category goes to Christina Pluvios for Out with the Old, In with the New. First place in the Places category goes to Stephen Ritchie for Red, White, and Rowlette. First place in the People category goes to Ann Tilger for Strolling in a Winter Wonderland. And Best of Show goes to Nestle Fudge for Unreachable Tears. Come on now. And that is all, thank you so much.

I'm going to turn it.

There you go. Three, two, one.

I spent a number of years on the commission with Neslie when she was serving, and she was one of my inspirations for getting into photography. So yeah, very special moment. Congratulations. Well done to all of you. Thank you for being here this evening. All right, the next item on our agenda is item 2B, presentation and proclamation for Constitution Week, the week of September 17th through 23rd, 2026. Making that presentation is Mayor Pro Tem Mike Britton. believe we also have the Daughters of the American Revolution here with us, so we'd welcome you to come to the front as well.

Absolutely. Thank you, Mayor, for giving me the honor of doing this. It's a true honor. So if you think about it, we just celebrated our 250th anniversary on July the 4th. Eleven years later, we had our Constitution. So this week, or the week of the 17th and 23rd, we'll be celebrating the 239th anniversary of the American Constitution. The United States Constitution, America's most important document, stands as a testament to the tenacity of Americans throughout history to maintain their liberties, freedoms, and edible rights. Constitution Week is celebrated annually during the week to commemorate its history, importance, and bring attention to how it still serves today. Celebration of the Constitution was started by the Daughters of the American Revolution. In 1955, the Daughters of the American Revolution petitioned Congress to set aside this week annually And the resolution was later adopted by the U.S. Congress and signed into public law on August the 2nd, 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. We hope you will find a very special way to celebrate Constitution Week in your homes, at school, and throughout our community during the week of September 17th through the 23rd. God bless America. Now let me do the proclamation. Whereas the Constitution of the United States of America, the guardian of our liberties, embodies the principles of limited government and a republic dedicated to the rule by law, and whereas September 17, 2026 marks the 239th anniversary of the drafting of the Constitution of the United States of America by the Constitutional Convention, and whereas it is fitting and proper to accord official recognition to the magnificent document of the Constitution of the United States and its memorable anniversary, and to patriotic celebrations which will commemorate the occasion. And whereas the tradition of celebrating the Constitution was started by the Daughters of the American Revolution by petitioning Congress to set aside September 17 through 23 annually to be dedicated for the observance of Constitution Week, and whereas Public Law 915 guarantees the issuing of a proclamation each year by the President of the United States of America, proclaiming the week beginning September 17th and ending September 23rd of each year as Constitution Week, and we ask our citizens to reaffirm the ideas of the framers of the Constitution. Now, therefore, I, on behalf of Jeff Winget, Mayor of the City of Rowlett, Texas, and on behalf of the City Council, do hereby proclaim September 17th through 23rd as Constitution Week in the City of Rowlett.

Thank you so much.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Britton. Next item on our agenda this evening is, if I can get to it, I apologize. Item 2C, presentation of proclamation for National CERT Week for the week of September 20th through 26th, 2026. And I would invite all of our CERT members who are nowhere in the audience up to the front. Come on down.

All right, we'll give everybody just a moment to make their way down.

Y'all get cozy back there. Alright, so National Community Emergency Response Team Week recognizes the valuable contributions of trained volunteers who assist their communities before, during, and after emergencies. Through specialized training in disaster preparedness, fire safety, light search and rescue, disaster medical operations, and team organization, CERT members enhance the community's ability to respond when emergencies occur. The Rowlett CERT program is comprised of dedicated volunteers who support the fire department through emergency preparedness, education, public outreach, special events, and assistance during incidents and when requested. Their commitment to serving others helps build a more resilient and prepared community when fostering partnerships between residents and our first responders. Recognizing National CERT Week provides an opportunity for the City of Rowlett to express its appreciation for the volunteers who generously donate their time, talents, and skills to help protect the community and promote emergency preparedness. And I'm certain one of our CERT leaders here will get up and do a shameless plug for CERT. But I'm going to encourage you all, if you have not had an opportunity to join up with CERT, please do. Not only is it a great opportunity to serve your community, but it's a great opportunity to learn. There's so much education that they provide in the course that they give about search and rescue and how to mark homes and just preparing your own family for safety in the midst of chaos, in the midst of disaster. Behind me is an incredible group of folks who have all been through that. They have volunteered countless hours at many of our events, both through Independence Day, through all of our music events downtown, and basically every other event that I've seen. Even when we had the sewer collapse up on Liberty Grove, these guys were out there. They were making sure our first responders had what they needed as they were working around the clock trying to solve for that problem. And basically every event that happens, these guys are right there with them. Let's give it up for our first responders. Okay, I'm going to read the proclamation and then I'm going to invite the rest of the council up to join us for a photo, otherwise I'm going to feel very outnumbered. All right, whereas community emergency response teams play a vital role in helping communities prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters and emergencies by providing trained volunteers who are ready to assist when needed, and whereas CERT members receive valuable training in disaster preparedness, fire safety, light search and rescue, disaster medical operations, team organization, and other emergency response skills that enable them to support professional first responders and assist their neighbors during times of crisis, and whereas the dedication and service of CERT volunteers strengthen the resilience of our community by promoting preparedness encouraging personal responsibility and providing additional resources during emergencies and large-scale incidents. And whereas CERT volunteers generously give their time, talents, and energy to participate in ongoing training, community outreach, emergency preparedness activities, and public safety events, demonstrating an unwavering commitment to the safety and well-being of others, And whereas National CERT Week, observed September 20th through 26th, 2026, provides an opportunity to recognize the important contributions of CERT programs and volunteers across the nation and to encourage citizens to become better prepared for emergencies that may affect their families, neighborhoods, and communities. And whereas the City of Rowlett is proud to recognize and thank the dedicated CERT volunteers who support our community and work alongside emergency management and public safety personnel to help make Rowlett a safer, stronger, and more resilient city, Now, therefore, I, Jeff Winget, Mayor of the City of Rowlett, and on behalf of the entire City Council, do hereby proclaim the week of September 20th through 26th, 2026, as National CERT Week in the City of Rowlett, and encourage all residents to recognize the valuable service of CERT volunteers, learn more about emergency preparedness, and take steps to ensure that their families and neighborhoods are prepared for emergencies. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you all. We appreciate you.

You know I can't give up an opportunity. I did. I did. This time I'm ready, right? Thank you for supporting CERT and our community for more than 23 years. Now in our third decade of service, we've reached 90,000 service hours, representing more than $2.3 million in volunteer time. CERT is an important part of our whole community approach to preparedness, response, and recovery. This program gives citizens with basic, provides citizens with basic training and the opportunity to make a meaningful difference during emergencies, crisis, and disasters in our community. Rowlett has long built, excuse me, Rowlett has long been built on a strong foundation of volunteerism that helps make Rowlett such a great place to live. Programs like CERT matter because they bring us together, they build resistance, and make a real difference when our neighbors need help the most. CERT is truly about neighbors helping neighbors. If you'd like to learn more about our program, take a basic course, or join the active team, please visit RowlettCERT.com for more information. Thank you again for your continued support and for this wonderful proclamation.

You guys are going to have to find a way to squeeze in here. Everybody on this side face this way.

Everybody on this side face this way. There you go. So we gotta push in. Here, make a little line. You got it? Oh my eyes are closed.

That's my wife all the time.

That's good.

Which way are you going?

Thank you.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, if we can come back to order please.

I TELL YOU, ALL IT TOOK WAS THREE EMAILS AND THEY HAD BASICALLY AN ENTIRE CERT PROGRAM OUT HERE, SO KUDOS TO THEM. THEY KNOW HOW TO RALLY. ALL RIGHT. THE NEXT ITEM ON OUR AGENDA THIS EVENING IS ITEM 2D, UPDATE FROM THE CITY COUNCIL AND MANAGEMENT, FINANCIAL POSITION, MAJOR PROJECTS, OPERATIONAL ISSUES, UPCOMING DATES OF INTEREST AND ITEMS OF COMMUNITY INTEREST. MAKING THAT PRESENTATION IS DEPUTY MAYOR PROTEM JOHN BOWERS.

Thank you, Mayor. Here we go. So, from the city secretary's office, are you looking for ways to give back to the community? If so, we have a spot for you. We're looking for committed residents willing to volunteer a few hours of their time each month to serve on a board or commission. Applications are being accepted now through October 15th, 2026. Please visit www.rawlett.com slash 321 slash boards and commissions for more information. FROM COMMUNICATIONS AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT. THE RESULTS ARE IN. NOW LET'S TALK ABOUT WHAT THEY MEAN FOR RALET. JOIN US TOMORROW FROM 630 TO 9 PM AT THE RALET COMMUNITY CENTER AS WE PUBLICLY SHARE THE RESULTS OF THE 2026 COMMUNITY SURVEY FOR THE FIRST TIME. THE FIRST HALF OF THE EVENING WILL BE RECORDED AND WILL INCLUDE THE SURVEY RESULTS AND A CONVERSATION WITH CITY LEADERSHIP ABOUT WHAT WE'RE HEARING AND WHAT WE'RE DOING IN RESPONSE. THEN WE'LL COME TOGETHER FOR BREAKOUT CONVERSATIONS FOCUSED ON OUR FOUR KEY AREAS. YOUR SURVEY RESPONSE GAVE US THE WHAT, NOW LET'S TALK ABOUT THE WHY. RSVP TODAY AT RAWLET.COM. Our friendly peanut butter showdown with sexy is halfway through. I don't know about how friendly it is, but in time and Team Rowlett has already collected 250 pounds of peanut butter for the North Texas Food Bank. There's still plenty of time to help us add to the total. Through September 30th, you can donate jars of peanut butter at City Hall, the Rowlett Public Library, the Rowlett Community Center, Fire Station two or our utility building building. You can also donate online through Rowlett's virtual drive. Every donation helps support North Texas families and gets Rowlett one step closer to beating Saxxy. Let's keep going. Team Rowlett. More details are at Rowlett.com. You have two more chances to catch our Live on Maine series. Join us this Saturday and next Friday, September 25th, for unforgettable evenings of live music, local vendors and all around good vibes. You can join the fun from 6 to 9 p.m. in downtown Rowlett. More details at Rowlett dot com from the library. The library's newest book club will debut on Saturday, September 19th at 2 p.m. Cults, Crimes and Conspiracies will focus each month on a different true crime experience. Participants are encouraged to research the case prior to the meeting and engage with others in a lively discussion of what really happened. September's discussion will focus on the new age group Love Has One. Visit ralette.com slash book clubs for a list of the topics discussed each month as well as a list of all upcoming books for the library's three distinct book clubs. After school library programs are a fun way to supplement your child's learning and further develop a love of literacy. Children from five to eight years of age meet on Wednesdays at 4 p.m. For ages 9 through 13, Lego robotics programs are on Thursday at 6 p.m. For the full program calendar, you can find that at Rowlett.com slash library. On Saturday, September 26th at 11 a.m., kids can step into the shoes of a galactic defender and learn proper lightsaber forms at the library's Jedi Academy. While you're here, meet fan-favorite Star Wars characters from across the galaxy, make a craft and participate in a Star Wars scavenger hunt. Star Wars costumes are encouraged, but not necessary. From the police, join us for National Night Out on Tuesday, October 6th, 2026, as neighborhoods across Rowlett come together to strengthen relationships between residents, local law enforcement, first responders, and community leaders. National Night Out is more than a night of fun. It's an opportunity to build safer, stronger, and more connected neighborhoods. Consider hosting a block party, neighborhood gathering, cookout or other community event and invite your local police officers, firefighters and other city representatives to join you. The Raleigh Police Department currently has 18 neighborhoods registered for National Night Out 2026. Make sure your neighborhood does not miss out by contacting Officer Eric Mitchell at E. Mitchell at Raleigh dot com. From Parks and Recreation, Toddler Tuesdays at the Rowlett Community Center. Let your little ones play, explore, and make new friends at Toddler Tuesdays. This fun, unstructured playtime gives children ages two to five years old the opportunity to burn off energy, develop social skills, and even enjoy age-appropriate activities in a safe and welcoming environment. Children can explore a variety of toys, games, and play on equipment while parents and caregivers connect with other families. Open play encourages creativity, independence, movement, and positive social interaction, all while having fun. Parents, caregivers must remain with their children and are responsible for supervision. come play make friends and make tuesdays your favorite day of the week toddler tuesdays will be held every tuesday starting on september 22nd from 9 a.m to 10 30 and is three dollars per child and lastly for our upcoming senior activities last but not least we have a lot of fun happening for our seniors this october we're kicking things off on thursday october 8th with a trip to the state fair of texas seniors will meet at down at the downtown rawlett dart station At 9 a.m., hop on the train and enjoy a day at the fair. There's no cost to sign up for the trip, but participants are responsible for their own State Fair admission and DART train ticket. On Friday, October 9th, we're bringing the Halloween fun right here to the Rowlett Community Center with our Senior Halloween Lunch. We'll start at 11.30 with Halloween Bingo, followed by lunch at noon, games, contests, and lots of laughs. It's a great opportunity for our seniors to dress up, socialize, and enjoy a fun afternoon together. And we're not done yet. On Friday, October 16th at 10 a.m., seniors can climb aboard our new bus for a spooky and fun-filled trip to Munster Mansion in Waxahachie. The trip is $40 per person and is sure to be a memorable Halloween adventure. There's always something happening with our senior programs, so we encourage everyone to register early to reserve their spot since space can be limited. To sign up for these activities or learn more about what's coming up, call 972-412-6170 or visit Rowlett.com slash seniors. And Mayor, with that, I can turn it back over to you.

Thank you, Mr. Bowers. I believe we also have an update from Mr. Fassett.

Look at this one. I know, that's an awe. And you can see that one eye missing, but he is a beauty. He is a beauty. So let's go ahead and meet Hayes. He is a nine to 10 year old who has the sweetest, gentlest soul you'll ever meet. Hayes may only have one eye, but that does not stop him from showing his love to everyone he meets. Once you meet him, you will notice his calm, quiet, and easygoing personality. And there's a bonus with him. Hayes does not react to other dogs, even gets along with cats, and we tested today, and he also gets along with council person Carter Halston. Hayes is looking for someone who will either foster or adopt him, and who will give the love and care he is looking for. If you'd like to meet Hayes or are interested in any other animals, the Rowlett Animal Services welcomes you to come visit. They're located at 4402 Industrial Street and are open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. All right.

Thank you, Mr. Fassett. Council, any other updates to share? All right, seeing none, we'll move along with our agenda and move to item three, citizens input. At this time, comments will be taken from the audience on any topic. No action can be taken by the council during citizens input. Our first speaker this evening is Dan Haupt, followed by Beth Crockett. Mr. Haupt, if you'll state your name and city of residence, you'll have three minutes. You can just pull the mic back your way, please, sir.

Dan Haupt, Rowlett. I want to speak on behalf of Hayes as well at the animal shelter. He's keeping an eye out for everybody. Council, Mayor, I'm glad the council has moved to start the animal shelter. I know that there are options on the property. I just don't understand why we're really not considering Miller Heights since that was a property that was voted for and approved by voters. I also know some citizens have concerns about the location in Sirens. My big concern is that we are not spending any more money on architectural plans or major plans of any kind until a site is firmly chosen. We have already wasted money on a grandiose design for a municipal building at Hereford Park. that the voters did not approve. Please stay on task, and let's focus on what the voters approved. Also, I want to speak on park police. I know it had been brought up once before that we were not going to have any, but I have found a way and found the money to have one park police officer. We have over a half a million in the tree fund. Trees and parks go together. Let's think about getting one and letting them work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and maybe one more day during the week. We can do this. There's no sense in not having one park police officer for a city this size. Also, I'm turning into Lake Bend Estates. We know the wall's not built, but what I really want to say is the lights are still not on on Main Street, and we are missing the mark. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Our next speaker is Beth Crockett, followed by Lori Gilbert.

Beth Crockett Rowlett. I want to speak tonight about the building of the animal shelter. On August 20th, 2026, the Animal Shelter Advisory Board was presented with the possibility of building the shelter at 8502 Shrady Road next door to the fire station. The board, after being presented with this option, unanimously voted to ask the council to consider alternate locations. The board further suggested that before there were any construction contracts let, that the city do a noise study of the location before proceeding. If the council proceeds tonight with items 4i on the consent agenda with CORE and item 5G on the regular agenda with HOPE or WELCOR, then you will be ignoring what the Animal Shelter Advisory Board has recommended is in the best interest of the animals and staff. The increased costs to build at the Shrady location are significant. Right off the top, the design charrette we have will not work at the tradie site. Therefore, Helper Welker will have to charge us to redesign the shelter to fit the long, narrow lot. According to their own, in the packet today, it's 25% of $540,000 to do that charrette. We need to do a noise study at the location. The infrastructure cost will be higher to build on this lot. There are no sidewalks to walk dogs. We also would have to build sound barrier of some type on the back of the lot to not disturb the neighborhood behind the shelter. There are so many reasons not to build at the straighties a lot besides the increased cost. This location is not centrally located is within a few thousand yards of being in Rockwall County. The fire station sirens will make the dogs bark and howl for an extended period when they leave the station. This will be unbearable for the animals and staff. There is no way at that location to walk dogs without building extensive sidewalks along Shrady. The goal of the shelter is to increase adoptions. This site is not conducive to that either because of the location. By proceeding tonight with the construction contract, the council is sending the message to the advisory board that it doesn't matter what we think. is the best thing to get the right shelter in the right location. Please pull item 4I from the consent agenda and amend it to include looking for locations at the alternate sites. And pull item 5G from the regular agenda to allow noise study to be done if you're going to go ahead with trading before the construction contract is signed. Well, we're talking about costs. We need to find out why $3.2 million has been spent from the animal shelter bond. According to the council packet this week, there was only $5.2 million available to build the shelter. The only thing that should have been spent out of that bond money would have been to do the design charrette with Hope or Welker and the ASAB's input to that design. We have a good design already. There is no reason to start over with the design process. If we build a shelter on one of the alternate sites being considered, would cost at least the full 8.4 million approved in the bill. Please do what the Animal Shelter Advisory Board voted unanimously to ask the council to do. Look at alternate sites for the shelter. This is a long-term commitment. Let's not make a decision that has long-term repercussions because we are in a hurry to get something built.

Thank you, Ms. Crockett.

All right, our next speaker this evening is Lori Gilbert, followed by Denise Aljuhi.

Laurie Gilbert, Rowlett. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm back tonight to talk briefly about Paddle Point Park, specifically about parking, erosion, handicap access, and the fencing. When I spoke to you previously about Paddle Point, I talked about what a wonderful asset this park is in Rowlett. Since then, I've continued to visit the park, and just this past weekend, we were there with people who came from Murphy, Texas, to enjoy Paddle Point. That tells you something. People from outside Rowlett are coming here to enjoy this park and Lake Ray Hubbard. First, I want to thank the city for addressing the fencing since I last spoke. The fencing has been repaired and I appreciate that. However, I still believe that fencing needs to extend farther into the lake so people cannot simply go around it to access the bridge. And right now, while the lake level is so low, seems like the perfect opportunity to do that work. Much of the area that would normally be underwater is exposed and accessible. I would hate for us to miss this opportunity, have the lake level come back up, and then realize we still need to extend that fencing. The handicap launches also remain a concern. They are still broken, and this weekend we actually saw people with disabilities trying to use them. It was frustrating to watch because we have designated handicap parking and an accessible launch, If the launch doesn't work, then we really aren't providing access. I would really like to see that repaired immediately. Parking continues to be another major issue. I understand there is approximately $1.8 million in the budget for park parking. If those dollars are available, I would like to see Paddle Point Park become a priority. The park is being used and people are coming from other communities to use it. On busy weekends, there simply isn't enough parking. I also understand there is approximately 4.5 million available for erosion work. The erosion at Paddle Point is clearly visible, and again, with the lake level currently so low, this seems like an ideal time to address some of that work. If the money is already in the budget, I don't want us to lose the opportunity we have right now. So tonight I'm really asking for action on four things. Repair the handicap launches, move forward with the additional parking, extend the fencing farther into the lake while the water is down, and begin addressing the erosion. Paddle Point is already a wonderful asset to Rowlett. We don't need to reinvent the park. The problems have been identified, the funding is in the budget, and with the lake level down, we have the opportunity right now to get some of this work done. Let's take advantage of that opportunity. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Our next speaker is Denise Aljuhi, followed by Hassan Aljuhi.

Denise, Rowlett, Texas. Good evening. This matter now concerns the integrity of Rowlett's permitting and inspection process. The City Council adopted Ordinance 01025 as a limited exception for certain accessory structures. That ordinance imposed specific conditions. One condition required the structure's material to be consistent with the dominant structure on the property. The dominant residence is brick. The accessory structure has walls made from vinyl fence panels. That conflict is visible, yet the city continues relying on past entry and myGov. A checkbox proves that someone entered a result. It does not show who conducted the inspection, what was examined, what ordinance requirements were evaluated, or how vinyl fence panels were determined to be consistent with a brick residence. The city says no separate inspection report exists. Then please produce the complete mygov record, the inspector's identity, inspection date, and time, inspection type, notes, photographs, attachments, status history, and audit trail. There is also an unanswered question about the electrical work. When we asked whether the electrical work was permitted, the response was, what difference does it make? It makes a difference because electrical work requires permits and inspections for public safety. It makes a difference because ordinance must apply as written. It makes a difference because residents have a right to know whether city approvals are supported by evidence. The Board of Adjustment denied the request set back relief in 2022. Council later adopted a limited exception. That exception did not waive every other code and material requirement. I'M ASKING THE CITY TO STOP TREATING THE EXISTENCE OF A PERMIT AS PROOF OF COMPLIANCE. EXPECT THE COMPLETE STRUCTURE, APPLY EVERY CONDITION OF ORDINANCE 01025, DOCUMENT THE FINDINGS AND RELEASE THE SUPPORTING RECORDS. IF ROULETTE CANNOT SHOW WHAT INSPECTED, WHAT WAS INSPECTED, HOW CAN IT HONESTLY CLAIM THAT THIS STRUCTURE PASSED? THANK YOU.

Thank you, ma'am. Our next speaker is Hassan al-Juhi, followed by Patrick Bandel.

Hassan al-Juhi. We're here again about the Shedd Warwick Drive, and it's been going on for a long time now. We've been asking for inspection, asking for what's going on with this shed, the one that's being made out of flammable plastic at the zero setback, and really nobody cares. It's been going for a long time, and we asked for an inspection. We've been ignored. Well, you know you put a zero setback but we gotta go with the building has to go with the codes and the codes they never been applied to that building that that shed it cannot get a Citation because we didn't apply any codes in there. It has electric it has plumbing slop concrete and plastic PINCING THE WHOLE SHED AND IT'S REALLY DANGEROUS. YOU KNOW, IT SEEMS LIKE NOBODY LISTENED. YOU'VE BEEN IGNORED, MR. MAYOR, ABOUT THAT TO ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN BY THE PREVIOUS MAYOR, BUT YOU BUSHED FOR IT TO GET IT APPROVED. MR. BRITAIN IN HERE HAS ALSO voted for zero setback. We've never been informed that we're going to approve it. We came here so many times for the meeting, and we show our concern about safety, flooding, you know, the whole nine yards. We've been trying to tell you, but nobody will listen. You still approved it. You still made it happen. We need the ordinance and the codes to be applied, and it need to be to show us all the permits to that check. It's been sitting there like a container ship, sitting next to my house with a zero setback. If there's a fire, we don't have no alley, you know? We didn't have no alley. It's dangerous. It's time to do something about it. And it should start from here to show like a good faith and doing the right things. Keeping it going is not going to help nobody. It has to be done the right way. We have rights too. Well, I'm glad you guys were talking about the Constitution. It's in our side. You are putting our life in danger. You did the illegal building, it made it legal, built with no permits, built in zero setback. It's been rebuilt in 2016. The permit, it doesn't have accurate information. I think it's wrong. And you should take that building down. How long are we going to be coming here to ask to do the right things? If nobody can do the right things, really the city is not going to thrive. The council should have a meeting, and they should get all the permits and look at it and see what's going on, what happened, and who is responsible. They need to correct their mistakes. Human do mistakes. They don't . Thank you.

Thank you, sir. All right, our next speaker is Patrick Bandel, followed by Rhonda Johnson.

TRY AGAIN. PATRICK BANDEL, RAOLETTE. THE LAKE BENDA STATE SCREENING WALL HAS RECEIVED ITS SECOND SET OF BIDS AND I SEE YOU WILL BE VOTING ON THEM TONIGHT. I NOTICED THAT THE LOWEST BID WAS AROUND $900,000. WHILE THIS MAY BE VIEWED AS WELL BELOW THE INITIAL COST ESTIMATE, I DO WANT TO ENCOURAGE THE COUNCIL TO BE DELIBERATE AND SEE ALL THE POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES TO EACH BID. SOMETIMES IT'S NOT ALWAYS BEST TO GO WITH THE CHEAPEST AVAILABLE. Reviews speak volumes. Spend a little extra money and get a quality product. Let's take a moment to review each of the bids to see who provides the best quality product here. We have struggled a long time to get to a point of accepting a bid. Let's not have it all for nothing by choosing the less than acceptable company who is only concerned with cutting cost. Don't forget the initial vote set aside $1.5 million for completion of the project. The money is there. Let's use it for the... LET'S USE IT AND PROCEED WITH A QUALITY PRODUCT AND ONE THAT EXEMPLIFIES THE BEAUTY OF OUR GREAT CITY. ON ANOTHER NOTE, I SEE WE ARE GETTING TWO DIFFERENT STORIES CONCERNING THE EASEMENTS NEEDED FOR THE PROJECT. CHRISTOPH SEEMS TO BE VERY ENCOURAGED BY THE PROGRESS STATING THAT TWO OF THE FOUR EASEMENTS HAVE COMPLETED ALL DOCUMENTATION. ONE HAS EXPRESSED A WILLINGNESS BUT HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO COORDINATE THE EXECUTION OF THE And the last one has asked for boundaries of the easement to be staked and is characterized as cautious but open. We were told previously that three of the four had easements of the easements had been finalized by Blackland. But now you're stating that one of them is asking for boundaries to be staked. Seems like maybe somebody is trying to make it appear as if more progress has been made than actually has. I HAVE TO ASSUME THAT THE CORNER LOT YOU ARE STATING HAS EXPRESSED WILLINGNESS BUT NOT QUOTED ANY EXECUTION OF THE DOCUMENT IS THE SAME ONE THAT BLACKLAND CONSULTING HAS STATED THEY HAVE SPOKEN TO ONCE BUT NEVER HEARD FROM AGAIN. THIS IS THE RESIDENT I'VE STATED SEVERAL TIMES IS UNWILLING TO SIGN ANY DOCUMENT AND IS UNTRUSTING OF ANY GOVERNMENT AGENCY. IT APPEARS BLACKLAND CANNOT GET ANY MORE COMMUNICATION FROM THEM. As a matter of fact, I'm afraid a wellness check may be in order because I personally knocked on this door multiple times over the course of several weeks with no response. I'm hopeful the project will be able to proceed without the four executed easements as stated. And if this is the case, let's vote for the bid and move forward. Let's get the shovels in the ground and start laying some bricks. I also see that tomorrow night we will approve the budget and be adopting the tax rate of .807891 cents per $100. Please consider the fact that we continue to have a large surplus of taxes as previously stated and relieve some of the stress on the citizens you work for by lowering homeowner's tax. Every little bit can help. Garland did so for its citizens and look at the news and public draw some eyes as movers when they see a government that gives back to its people. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Our last speaker this evening that I have a card for is Rhonda Johnson.

And if there's anyone else who wishes to speak this evening, if you can grab a speaker's card from the back left corner of the room, please.

Rhonda Johnson, Rowlett. I just want to say a little about the animal shelter. I'm really happy that you're looking to move forward. A couple of things I'm concerned about. I just want to voice them. The sound study that's supposed to be done. I know y'all have a vote coming up tonight. I would love to know what the results of that are before you move forward on this project. I just did a little bit of research and basically the decibel should be studied from the edge of the property where the building would be built to see how loud the decibels are that they'll affect the animals in the shelter. Another thing, another thought is the original bond money was 8,000, 8,400,000. And now after the new design of 550,000, we're down to 4,672,745. So where's the rest of the money? Maybe some of it was used in the prior design. I don't know. But my concern is if this I like that land in a lot of ways, but if we are going to have it there in doing a little further study. There's things that can help with the sound, and it would probably involve more money. Y'all may know this, but high barriers, things like heavy concrete, multi layers of drywall, sound dampening materials, acoustic insulation, acoustic glazing where you have double or triple windows, some baffles and things in the noise and I think about the animals and You know the sirens, but I also think about the neighbors the dogs and the neighbors and if the dogs are agitated there's going to be more agitated neighbors, so Just want to put some thoughts out there because I know you are looking at it. So thanks for listening.

Thanks for Johnson All right, do we have anyone else from the public who wish to speak tonight I I DO WANT TO PROVIDE ONE POINT OF CLARIFICATION BECAUSE I HEARD IT MENTIONED A COUPLE TIMES ABOUT THE AVAILABLE AMOUNT AND OF COURSE WE'LL GET THERE LATER IN THE MEETING WHEN WE DISCUSS THIS BUT JUST IN CASE ANYBODY HAS TO LEAVE BEFORE WE GET TO THAT POINT. IN THE PACKET IT DOES SAY THE AVAILABLE BUDGET PRIOR TO ANY PROPOSED AMOUNT BEING APPROVED IS 5. $5.223 million, essentially. $3 million have not been issued in a bond issuance yet. So while that funding was approved by the voters, that $3 million, that additional $3 million that's been raised a couple times has not been issued yet, which is the reason for that differential. So again, we'll get there and I'll allow staff to fully explain that. But just in case anybody has to leave, I wanted to clarify that for those that had mentioned it. With that, we will move on with our agenda to our consent agenda. The following items can be acted upon in one motion. A city council member or a citizen may request items be removed from the consent agenda for individual consideration. We did have a request at last night's meeting to pull items 4D, which are the blocker trucks Item 4G, which is the funding and lease agreement with the Chamber of Commerce, as well as 4I, which is the professional services contract with core location advisors. So those items have already been pulled for individual consideration, either to receive a presentation or to answer questions. Do we have a request to pull any other items, either council or anyone from the public? All right, seeing none, Debbie, if you can please read those remaining items into the record.

4A, consider action approved in the minutes. 4B, consider action to approve amending the Master Fee Schedule. 4C, consider action to approve a negotiated settlement between the Atmos City Steering Committee and Atmos Energy Corp Mid-Tex Division. 4E, consider action to authorize a Memorandum of Understanding with North Central Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council. 4F, consider action to approve Amendment Number 4 to an interlocal agreement with Dallas County. And 4H, consider action to approve a municipal prosecution services engagement letter.

All right, counsel, those are our consent agenda items. Do I hear a motion? I see a motion by Mr. Britton.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. I move that the items be approved as read.

I have a motion and a second by Mr. Bowers.

I second.

I have a motion and a second to approve those items as read. Any discussion? Seeing none, let's call the vote please. And those items carry unanimously. Next we'll move to item 4D. CONSIDER ACTION TO ADOPT A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE PURCHASE OF TWO KENWORTH TRAFFIC BLOCKING TRUCKS FROM TEXAS KENWORTH CO. LLC DOING BUSINESS AS MHC KENWORTH FORT WORTH AN AUTHORIZED DEALER FOR KENWORTH TRUCK COMPANY THROUGH A SOURCEWELL COOPERATIVE PURCHASING AGREEMENT EXCUSE ME A COOPERATIVE PURCHASING CONTRACT FOR A PRICE NOT TO EXCEED THREE HUNDRED NINETY SIX THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS AUTHORIZING THE INTERIM CITY MANAGER OR HIS DESIGNEE TO EXECUTE ALL NECESSARY DOCUMENTS TO EFFECTUATE SAID PURCHASE AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE AND MAKING

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Tonight we're going to talk about the blocker trucks that we're requesting for purchase. And so if you look here, this is some of the trucks that have been struck. The one on the left here is Lorena Fire. Just this last weekend was hit on Interstate 35 by a vehicle about 4 in the morning. The one there in the center is from Belton, Texas. It was hit by a semi back about three years ago. The truck on the left, the Lorena truck, is obviously sustained massive damage and is going to be out of service for probably over a year. That Belton truck, I was right there in Temple when that got hit. That truck was gone about 18 months getting repaired. It was hit by a semi doing about 60 miles an hour. And then the one on the right, that is our engine five that just got hit two weeks ago out on I-30. We were very lucky in that one and we're hoping minimal damage to that one. Right now, what we use for blocking on our busier streets and our highways is this particular engine here. It's our engine 91, E91. It's older. It's a 2016 E1 apparatus. It's a full-size fire engine. It's actually one of our reserve trucks. It'll be the first one that goes when we purchase our next engine, and it arrives here in Rowlett. And it is, I mean, it will do all the things that we need it to do as far as being large and out there and visible. But again, we use this as a reserve truck. So we depend on this as a possible day in, day out use fire truck. And replacing this truck, the most recent quotes that we're getting on trucks, they're ranging somewhere between $1.2 million and $1.5 million for an apparatus like you see in this picture here. So what we're proposing is to switch to a different vehicle. And there are several reasons for this. And what you see some departments using is old fire apparatus that either put the stinger attenuators on them, like the two, the one at the top and the one on the right. And then you see some older trucks that have been retired and just moved into purely blocking status where they're stenciled up. This is the one down on the bottom left is an old ladder truck that San Marcos converted into a blocker truck. Those are okay, but normally when you get apparatus to that age of life, they become very unreliable. And so they spend almost as much time out of service and unavailable as they do in service and available to respond. And once again, they are not purpose-built for blocking on highways. So what we're looking at purchasing is two of these units, which are purpose built blocking apparatus. They'll help us with hauling cones and other traffic control devices like the barrels you see in that one there on the lower left. These are deployed in several areas throughout Texas. The one there on the top left is actually the one that's in Denton right now. Garland just bought three of these that are very similar to that. The lower one there is just one that's being used in a couple of TxDOT locations. And then the one on the right there is about three or four years ago. And we had very good luck with it. for for blocking and that is exactly what we're proposing to buy here is two of those vehicles just like that they will be sorry I'm gonna back up here they will they will look like this I mean obviously they're gonna be red because it's the fire department they will have the the stinger attenuator on them and they will have that full sign board so we can put whatever message up there arrows going either way or both ways just whatever message we need to do Like I said, they are purpose-built for blocking. They will protect the firefighters and the police officers and other personnel that are out on the interstate when we're working these wrecks or on some of our busier streets here in town as we're working these wrecks. But the other thing it protects that a lot of people don't take into consideration is the motorist that hits us. If you hit a fire truck, that is typically somewhere around a 50 to 90,000 pound immovable object. It's like driving into a brick wall. Most folks that hit those are injured and require transport to the hospital and some sort of medical care. These attenuators, they are made to absorb an impact of a vehicle doing 70 miles an hour. And I have actually personally seen one of these in a neighboring city. that was hit. A person hit one in a pickup truck doing 75 miles an hour, never hit the brakes, just ran straight into it. The driver that was sitting in the attenuator truck actually got out and walked back to look at what was going on with it. The driver of the pickup truck got out, walked around, was fine, not transported or anything. The great thing about that was The attenuator truck was taken to the dealer where that was. They've got spare attenuators in their lot. They pulled that off, put a new one on, and three days later it's back in service out on the highway. And so that's kind of what we're looking at here. We're looking at using something, I think, a little smarter and quite a bit cheaper and easier to obtain than an actual fire apparatus. And so, again, these are right around $198,000 a copy. If you hit one of the attenuators, they're about $35,000 to replace one of those. And even if something would hit the truck and completely destroy the entire thing, we can get those in about 10 weeks compared to three years for a fire engine. So just in a lot of ways, I think these make a lot more sense for us. And I think we'll serve us and our citizens a lot better. The reason why we're asking for two, number one, we get a lot of times we have to shut down the entire interstate. So we've got four or five lanes to try to shut down. So this is going to help us do that with more vehicles to put out there and block. The other is, is we often get two accidents working at the same time. So it'd be nice to have one in one place, one in the other. But also we'll be able to loan at least one of those from time to time to our other departments when they need to do work out and work around traffic. We'll be able to loan those to them to utilize those to protect themselves as well. So it is for primary for fire department use, but we are absolutely willing to share it and are planning on sharing that with our public works folks and some others when they have to work out in the traffic. And by far one of the most hazardous jobs we do as CITY EMPLOYEES, EITHER FIRE, POLICE, PUBLIC WORKS, WORK OUT IN THE STREETS AND ON THE HIGHWAY. IT'S A VERY UNPREDICTABLE AND VERY DANGEROUS WORKPLACE WHEN YOU GET OUT IN THE STREETS. AGAIN, THAT'S WHY WE'RE ASKING FOR THESE AND I'M HAPPY TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS.

COUNSEL, WHAT QUESTIONS DO YOU HAVE? I CAN'T RECALL WHO ASKED FOR THIS ITEM. MARVIN.

I DON'T HAVE ANY QUESTIONS BUT I JUST HAVE A STATEMENT. I had this pulled so that the citizens would know. There's a couple of people that did email us wanting to know about it. They're very important for the safety of the motorists and the firefighters and police officers out there. We have had an engine on 190 that was completely destroyed. And we as taxpayers had to pay the bill to get that fixed because the car that hit it, insurance only covered up to $50,000 and that's not very much money when it comes to about a 3 million to 5 million truck. Most importantly, the thing that I'm looking for here is the safety. I want everybody to go home. I want every police officer, firefighter, even the record drivers, everybody to go home. And these are very effective. They're being deployed in many cities. TxDOT uses them. NTTA uses them. So again, we need to hire you as a presenter forever because you're doing a very good job on these presentations. When I saw this come up, I said, that's why I wanted him to do this, so people could see this. Thank you again.

Yes, sir. Thank you.

Answer any other questions? All right, now we'll entertain a motion. Motion by Mr. Gibbs.

Yes, mayor. I would make a motion that we adopt a resolution authorizing the purchase of the two Kenworth tracking blocking trucks from Texas Kenworth Company LLC doing business as MHC Kenworth out of Fort Worth as authorized dealer for the Kenworth Truck Company through a source will cooperative purchasing contract for the price not to exceed $396,100. That was what I came to $1,000. Is that $1,000? $100. 100. Authorizing the interim city manager and his designee to execute all necessary documents effective said.

I have a motion to approve. The item is read. Second by Mr. Britton.

I second.

I have a motion to approve with a second. Any discussion? All right. Let's call the vote please. And that item carries unanimously. Next, we'll move to item 4G, consider action to adopt a resolution approving the fiscal year 2027 economic development funding and lease agreement between the city of Rowlett and the Rowlett Chamber of Commerce in an amount of $100,000 for economic development services and the lease of the building space located at 4418 Main Street for an annual rent of $1, authorizing the interim city manager to execute the agreement and providing an effective date. So Mr. Holston, I believe you had asked for this to be pulled. Did you just have a question, comment, or did you want a presentation of some sort?

Yeah, there's the presentation. Be happy to entertain that. I always enjoy seeing our business community and seeing that they're represented here. So I noticed the chambers here as well. So if there's a presentation, happy to look at that.

So Mr. Bauer just told me there is not a presentation.

OK. All right. Well, generally, if the city manager could give us the highlights of this agreement, that would be helpful for our citizens and us.

Certainly do that, sir. So this is a funding agreement with our partner, the Chamber of Commerce. We provide $100,000 in funding. As part of that agreement, we provide that funding in $50,000 increments, six months through the year. In exchange for that, we get full sponsorship recognition. We also get access to the events, the luncheons, and the other activities of the Chamber. and we also provide on this agreement there's a our lease of the current chamber building for the next year it is a and of course use of the rcc uh the golf tournament uh once a year and of course the school for the not the school the chamber sorry the community park uh for the 5k and there's one other thing they do what is it i remember in a second i apologize uh and then also AGAIN, THE LEASE OF THE BUILDING. THIS IS A ONE-YEAR AGREEMENT WITH FOUR POTENTIAL RENEWALS. THE FUNDING FOR THE CITY COUNCIL CAN BE ADJUSTED ANNUALLY BASED ON NOTICE TO THE CHAMBER. SO IF COUNCIL DECIDES TO CHANGE THAT $100,000 GRANT AMOUNT DURING THE BUDGET PROCESS, YOU CAN ADJUST THAT AMOUNT. IF YOU GO BELOW $50,000, THEN THE CHAMBER CAN CHOOSE TO TERMINATE THE AGREEMENT. EITHER PARTY CAN TERMINATE THE AGREEMENT BASED ON 90 DAYS NOTICE TO THE OTHER PARTY. I think that's primary terms.

That answers my questions. Thank you.

Counselor, Mr. Gibbs.

Prior to moving forward, is there possible that we can move into executive session to get some legal advice from the city attorney?

We can certainly do that. All right. As authorized by Section 551.071 of the Texas Government Code, this meeting is going to be convened into closed executive session for the purpose of seeking confidential legal advice from the city attorney on Agenda Item 4G at the request of Mr. Gibbs. It is 8.04 p.m. We'll convene in the work session room briefly and then return to the council chambers to conclude our meeting. Thank you. All right, we are back in open session. We concluded our executive session at 8.35 p.m. It is now 8.40 p.m. We're continuing on with item 4G. And council, before we continue, were there any additional questions for our interim city manager regarding the agreement that was presented? Were there any questions at all? All right, then I will entertain a motion. I see a motion by Mr. Gibbs.

Thank you, mayor. I move that we approve the funding agreement with the chamber as presented with one amendment. And that amendment is to add section 2.8 for the term of the agreement. The chamber shall semi-annually provide the city with an update of the chamber activities to the city council.

All right. We have a motion to approve the item as amended. Victoria, did you catch that amendment? Okay. I have a motion to approve the item as presented. A second by Mr. Britton?

I second.

We have a motion and a second to approve the item as amended. Any discussion? All right, seeing none, let's call the vote, please. And that item carries unanimously. All right, next we will move along to item 4I. Consider action to adopt a resolution authorizing a professional services contract with Core Location Advisors LLC for real estate advisory and acquisition services to evaluate and acquire potential locations for a public safety and city hall facilities in an amount not to exceed $46,980. authorizing the interim city manager or his designee to execute the contract and all necessary and related documents and providing an effective date. We did receive some information last night from our interim city manager that this agreement had been amended by the vendor. And so we don't have, I guess, the final information that we need to consider this item this evening. So we are removing this item from consideration tonight. Is that correct?

That is correct.

Okay. Council, any questions before we move on beyond this item? All right, in that case, we will move to item 5A. Consider action to adopt a resolution authorizing the award of a contract for invitation to bid number 2026-98-B, Lake Bend Estates Screening Wall Project Rebid for an amount not to exceed $993,703.70. which is $903,367 plus a 10% contingency of $90,336.70. Authorize the mayor or his designee to execute the contract and all necessary documents to effectuate said purchase and to provide an effective date. And making this presentation is Brian Mandersheet, I think. Thank you, sir.

All right. Good evening, Council. I'm here to discuss the Lake Bend Estate Screening Wall project. We're here to award the contract to G-Rod Construction for this project, as well as to determine the preferred color for the Lake Bend State Screening Wall. Just a quick background again. In November of 2025, the city manager approved the professional service agreement for the screening wall assessment. And then in February of 2026, the City Council approved the design contract for DCCM to do the Lake Bend Estate screening wall itself. The project scope is from approximately 4,400 to 5,100 Dalrock Road. It covers the alleys behind Lake Bend Drive to alley behind Greens Point Drive. The project includes 1,816 feet of screening wall, 219 square yards of alley pavement, and some storm sewer pipe as well. The engineer's opinion of probable cost was $1,168,600. Two bids were received on this rebid in September of 2026, lowest bidder being G-Rod Construction LLC. THE BID AMOUNT WAS FOR $903,367, WHICH IS $265,000 UNDER THE OPC. WE DID ALSO HAVE A FINANCIAL REVIEW AS WELL AS WE HAD THE ENGINEER OF RECORD REVIEW THE REFERENCES AND THEY HAD PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE AS WELL WORKING WITH THE LOBITER SO WE HAVE A LETTER OF REFERENCE AS WELL. Additionally, as we're moving through this process, the right-of-way acquisitions are moving forward. We did have a conversation earlier today with our real estate agent. So two of the agreements are fully executed. The third one has two property owners. The first one we had communication with agreed. We were able to get in contact with the second owner. who also agreed to now just coordinating between the two of them to get the full documents executed. We are expecting to have that done by the end of next week. And in the fourth one, we're still moving forward on that progress. We're looking to get appraisal done on that property to move forward with the easement process. And then here's just kind of the rough timeline for the project going forward. We're going to award the bid tonight. And then we will have our kickoff meeting either late September, early October. We're going to start moving forward with our notice to proceed and with the substantial completion anticipated in February of 2027 with the project closeout expected in March. And I have provided the council five different color samples there. There's additionally several others that we weren't able to get physical samples of. There's some in the red, some earth tones, and then some of the lighter white colors. STAFF'S RECOMMENDATION IS TO TEND TOWARDS THE RED, DARKER COLORS. THOSE TEND TO BE MORE CONSISTENT WITH THE WALLS OF THE IMMEDIATE VACINITY OF THE AREA. AS WELL, THOSE COLORS TEND TO DO BETTER CONCEALING DIRT AND GRIND WHICH REQUIRES LESS ONGOING MAINTENANCE NEEDS SUCH AS POWER WASHING. Basically, we move to award the contract to G-Rod Construction and for you all to select the color of your choice.

All right. Thank you, Brian. Appreciate the presentation. Council, what questions do you have?

Mayor, I've got a couple questions. Brian, thank you for your presentation. I will readily admit I haven't been on council for 18 months, so I don't know the full process, but I do have some questions. First of all, I believe around July 29th, we awarded this bid to another contractor. Is that correct?

Not for this project. I know we... I KNOW I PREVIOUSLY PRESENTED FOR AWARDING A CONTRACT FOR COUNTRY OR ESTATES. WE ALSO HAD TOLER BUSINESS PARK RECENTLY AWARDED. BUT IN AUGUST OF AUGUST 18TH, THAT COUNCIL, WE REJECTED THE BIDS TO REBID THIS PROJECT.

THAT'S RIGHT. WE HAD TO REJECT THE BIDS BECAUSE THE DESIGN WAS IN CONTRACT.

SO WE HAD A BID IN HAND. CORRECT. DO YOU RECALL THE AMOUNT OF THAT BID? WAS IT AROUND $709,000?

It was the original bid was around $709,000 from the little bidder. This bidder was in that selection of bids as well. Their original bid was, I think, in the millions. I don't remember that exact number off the top of my head, but this bid was lower than what they had previously bid in this project.

Okay. I seem to recall that we were focused on a bid of a $709,000. Is that correct? RIGHT. NOW THAT BID IS WHAT, 993,000? NOW THAT BID IS WHAT, 993,000? NOW THAT BID IS WHAT, 993,000?

IT'S 903, BUT THEN WE ALSO IT'S 903, BUT THEN WE ALSO IT'S 903, BUT THEN WE ALSO HAVE 90,000 FOR CONTINGENCY. HAVE 90,000 FOR CONTINGENCY. HAVE 90,000 FOR CONTINGENCY.

SO DID THE SCOPE CHANGE SO DID THE SCOPE CHANGE SO DID THE SCOPE CHANGE SIGNIFICANTLY THAT WOULD HAVE SIGNIFICANTLY THAT WOULD HAVE SIGNIFICANTLY THAT WOULD HAVE INCREASED THIS NEW BID?

INCREASED THIS NEW BID? INCREASED THIS NEW BID? NO. NO. No, the EOPCs from previous to now have varied fairly minorly. None of the quantities varied that significantly.

Okay, so quick math. That's about $284,000 additional expense since this 709 for the same work, correct?

Yeah.

What happened? That's a 40% increase.

IT WAS ORIGINAL BID HAD THREE DIFFERENT BIDDERS ON IT. THE ORIGINAL LOW BIDDER FROM THE FIRST ONE DID NOT REBID. THE OTHER TWO BIDDERS DID BID HIGHER THAN WHAT WAS WHAT THEY AWARDED HERE. BUT THESE TWO BIDDERS DID HAVE THIS OFFICIAL WORK, YOU KNOW, MORE EXPERIENCE WITH RETAINING WALLS THAN THE LOWEST BIDDER PREVIOUSLY.

AND DO YOU THINK THAT LOWEST BIDDER WAS QUALIFIED PREVIOUSLY?

I would be hesitant, I would say that for sure. just based off of the information that they had provided us in terms of their previous experience, none of the previous reference from the low bidder had actual screening wall projects. The closest in those projects was some park projects that included these small masonry benches, but it's not the same type of screening wall that we're expecting here.

So now it seems like we wouldn't recommend them.

That from the previous, but we had at least at the time the engineer to at least review that and that we were still in the process of reviewing that.

We found the error.

Well, I'm just trying to evaluate how the same scope rose by 40%. And we have a $284,000 additional cost from a low bidder previously. And so it seems sort of odd to me that they would have bid $709,000 and then not bid again, right? That seems unusual to me. Is that your experience?

I'll let you answer first.

I DO WANT TO CLARIFY THAT LOW BIDDER DID WITHDRAW THEIR BID. SO THEY DIDN'T INTEND TO ACTUALLY MOVE FORWARD WITH THE PROJECT AT THAT PRICE. ONCE THEY SAW THE PRICE, DID THEIR ANALYSIS, THEY DID WITHDRAW THEIR BID.

THAT'S CORRECT.

SO THIS IS THE NEXT HIGHEST BIDDER WHICH WE WOULD HAVE LOOKED AT HAD WE NOT REJECTED ALL BIDS. I BELIEVE THIS BID IS LOWER THAN THE PREVIOUS BID BY THIS SAME CONTRACTOR.

THAT IS CORRECT.

WERE WE PRESENTED THE DECISION TO MAKE AT THE 709,000 OR IS THIS COUNCIL?

NO, BECAUSE THEY WITHDREW THEIR BID.

OKAY. AGAIN, I DON'T WANT TO HOLD ANYTHING WITH THIS PROJECT BECAUSE As I said, I haven't been here for 18 months, but there are some citizens that have that have been walking through this process. So it does seem to me that whoever this bidder was, and now they withdrew, and then we had a contractor draw drawings that were incorrect. It makes me want to ask, is there anything else that we should be looking at that we haven't considered regarding this particular project. Needless to say, this has not been our finest hour. Would you agree? Okay, you don't have to answer that. Okay. I would also ask us how we vet our bidders in the future so that we don't see these sort of discrepancies and we have a low bidder and there's a 40% difference and we come back and I just think we ought to really look through who bids and their qualifications and make sure that they can deliver what they bid on. Those are my own questions. Thank you.

Can we have someone walk us through the purchasing process? Because this is clearly not the first time we've done this. Certainly there's been snafus, but we just approved the purchase of two blocker trucks that have been bid and purchased with a cooperative agreement and certainly not running into the same issues. Can you walk us through that process? Because I'm concerned about what I'm hearing from Mr. Holston and certainly don't want it to be misconstrued that the city does not have good purchasing controls. Because I know some of our purchasing agents and they're darn fine people.

Well, I think the need to help everybody understand is there are different processes depending on what you're acquiring, what the value is, and how you move forward with the project. So state law gives us a couple different paths to fulfill our fiduciary responsibility to make sure that we're getting the lowest qualified bidder and the best value for the community. One of those is through a cooperative agreement. A cooperative agreement is a process through which there has been a cooperative that has bid out THAT ALLOWS US TO THEN UTILIZE THAT BIDDING PROCESS TO IDENTIFY THE LOW BIDDER. IN THIS PARTICULAR CASE, WE BASICALLY PUT OUT SOMETHING FOR BID. ANYBODY CAN BID. WE ACTUALLY HAD QUALIFICATIONS INCLUDED IN THE BID LISTING. we identified what we were going to look at. So we certainly had an opportunity to examine each bidder once those bids are provided to see whether they were qualified, whether they provided an effective and responsive bid and could have considered disqualifying the low bidder in this case based on their limited experience with this kind of product. We didn't get that opportunity because they withdrew before we got to that point, and then we found the error and we had to reject all bids. There are processes that allow you to pre-qualify, as was mentioned by Council Member Halston, to pre-qualify bidders. Those are more complex and usually used for much larger projects where you actually have to have some sort of specialized expertise as part of the bidding process. Construction manager risk is one of those ways that allows you to actually go through that process and actually what we're using for the police building, for Hereforth Park, and for the animal shelter. We actually have a construction manager at risk. Their job is actually to pre-qualify the subcontractors and make sure they're qualified for bid and manage that process for us. So there's a number of different paths you can go through it. We certainly have followed those very closely in all the cases that we've just, again, what happened was we had a bid. That bid was never presented to council because it was withdrew. Now you can ask them why they withdrew it, but even if they hadn't withdrawn it, we still would have gone through the process of evaluating them before we made a recommendation for approval to make sure that they met the qualifications that we actually placed in the bid document when we bidded it. I hate that word, bidded it. When we bid it. Thank you.

Yeah.

So what I heard, I think it'd be safe to say, had they not withdrawn, we would have reviewed it as we would have done any bid, and we would have not chosen them based on their inability to do what they needed to do.

BASED ON THE FEEDBACK I WAS SEEING FROM THE ENGINEER WHO HAS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF REVIEWING THAT BID DOCUMENT, I THINK IT WAS VERY UNLIKELY THAT HE WOULD HAVE EVENTUALLY RECOMMENDED THEM FOR APPROVAL.

AND SO ON THE 18TH, AS I WAS PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL, WE REJECTED THOSE BIDS NOT DUE TO ANY PROBLEM ON STAFF SIDE. IT WAS FOR THE CONTRACTOR THAT HAD THE PROBLEM WITH THE DRAWINGS.

It was the design contractor.

The design contractor. No fault to the city staff.

The city staff did not make that design.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I want to clarify that we do oversee our design contractor, and that is our responsibility to make sure that the plans that are drawn and bid on are true and accurate and correct. Correct?

Yes.

Okay, and for whatever reason, that step failed in this process?

It did.

Okay, thank you.

Council, other questions?

On this one here, Christoph, if you may help too, this wasn't a bid where we did request for qualifications, correct? They didn't have to say, or did we do that?

No, we did not. As a part of our bidding process, they are to provide us several example projects that they have to show at minimum three projects of similar scope and scale with over five plus years of experience. And the lowest bidder for this project, G-Rock Construction, has provided us that. THAT TYPE OF INFORMATION. THEY HAVE A SCREENING WALL PROJECT AND SEVERAL OTHER PAVING AND OTHER SIMILAR TYPE OF PROJECTS.

AND THESE BIDS ARE ALL SEALED UNTIL THE END OF THE BIDDING AND THEN THEY COME IN AND THEY GO TO THE PURCHASING, PEOPLE SHOW UP THAT WANT TO SEE IT, THEY UNSEAL THEM AND TELL EVERYBODY WHAT THE BIDS WERE, IS THAT RIGHT? THAT'S CORRECT, YEAH. AND THEN AFTER THEY DO THAT, I GUESS THE CITY WILL LOOK AT IT AND THEY WILL DETERMINE IF THEY'RE GOING TO GO WITH THE LOW BID OR IF THEY'RE GOING TO GO WITH THE NEXT BID.

We pass the information off to the design consultant to review, to make sure that the bids make sense, that the pricing that they gave us is reasonable, that their preferences meet that job, that they're good, solid contractors.

And with that team, you have a team of engineers and some other folks that were, could you tell us who they were?

We reached out to our design consultant, DCCM.

Okay, and then they came up and they said, hey, this is your best option here with the bids that we see. Thank you.

Council, other questions? Brian had a question about the right-of-way acquisition. So we heard a comment earlier tonight about kind of the way that things were characterized, and I know I had followed up with Christoph, and his response to me was basically that things were perhaps somewhat put in a more favorable light, if you will. Overly optimistic. Overly optimistic, yes. And I would agree with that. It sounds like we've made at least a little bit of progress on one of the homes, and maybe both of them, if we're talking about an appraisal that's needed on the 4th.

At the very least, we are moving forward through this easement acquisition process. We should have executed documents from all three of them, or at least the primary three, by the end of next week. And then we're just going to keep going through the easement acquisition process for that fourth one.

And regardless of the status of those, this project's going to move forward. Is that correct?

That's correct. We're going to move forward. Once we get all the executed documents, we will take those to council and get the easement process finalized so that way we can get those secured.

Okay. And then another comment that I had heard previously was that because we suspected that one of these homeowners might be a challenge to work with, we should have just jumped straight to... basically taken the property, which is, I forgot the word for some reason, condemnation. We should have condemned the right of way and acquired that via that route. So Victoria, can you kind of talk us through typically what that process looks like? Because it's my understanding you can't just jump straight to condemnation. There has to be a good faith negotiation that takes place first. I could be wrong.

that's exactly right you have to give a first offer letter and then 30 days later later you have to provide a final offer letter and and those letters are the result of of negotiations um and and they're several things that have to be included in those. And then only after that, and after the council finds that those steps have been taken, can you then authorize eminent domain or condemnation. And then the petition would be filed in the court and a special commissioner's hearing would be held after the special commissioner's award the city the right away or the property interest that's needed. They they set the amount of just compensation and you put that in the registry of the court and you take possession.

Is there a standard typically applied to the type of improvement that would be leveraged in a condemnation? For example, underground infrastructure versus a roadway versus, in this case, a decorative screening wall. Does it have to rise to a certain level of importance before the court would consider that? No.

No. No. It's for a municipal purpose. Got it.

Okay. All right. Very good. Thank you. Council, what other questions do you have? All right. Thank you, Brian. Appreciate the presentation. We're going to have, I think, a conversation here about color. So Council, someone can either make a motion with a color choice or we can talk about color before we do that. Probably a little more clunky to make the motion and then try to amend it. So I would recommend we talk about color choice first. Previously, when we've worked with this particular neighborhood, the desire has been a whiter type color. The staff recommendation, as you heard, was a redder type color for the purposes of keeping it cleaner. For me, I'm in the Silver Bay camp. That color is still up there, which is the bottom center.

So one question. Brian, you said red. Is that burgundy or is that Monroe? Which one?

I'd say any of those would be in that row.

Either the red. Okay.

Other thoughts? Mr. Fafset? Can you pull your mic down just a little bit?

I'm a Silver Bay person.

Silver Bay person as well.

Yeah, I was Silver Bay also.

Well, I'm going to be different. I kind of like the Port Edwards.

Port Edwards? Okay.

Yeah, I like the Port Edwards as well. Okay.

Mr. Holston or Mr. Gazar? I'm leaning towards the Port Edwards.

Port Edwards.

Port Edwards for you as well?

I will amend to Port Edwards. We'll have some split here or something.

Okay. So I heard four Port Edwards and maybe now even a fifth. So I will entertain a motion with that in mind.

Okay.

Are you making a motion on the color or making a motion on the... You would be making a motion to approve and defining the color within your motion. I see a motion by Mr. Britton.

All right.

So am I approving the whole thing or just the color?

I would advise you to approve the whole thing.

OK. I move that we adopt a resolution. I'm sorry. I've got to get on the right one. I move that we adopt a resolution authorizing the award of a contract for invitation to bid 202698-4, Lake Bend Estate Screening Wall project for an amount not to exceed $993,703.70. The 10% contingency of 90,336.70, authorizing the mayor to execute the contract. And I also move that we select the color of Port Edwards.

I second.

We have a motion by Mr. Britton to approve. The item is read with the color of Port Edwards and second by Mr. Bowers. Any discussion? For those residents who have been involved in this process for a very long time, thank you so much for your patience. That doesn't even come close to what you deserve to hear, but it's all I have to give. So thank you for your patience. This has been a long time coming project. We have other screening walls that we're going to come back and talk to at a later date. I believe that our interim city manager shared that with you, council. So I expect there will be more discussion on screening walls at a later time. But for the purposes of this project and for the purposes of this wall, I am very excitedly going to push my yes button. Any other comments? Let's call the vote, please. That item carries unanimously.

All right. With that, we will move on to item 5B.

Thank you, Brian, again for the presentation and for show and tell. We appreciate that. There may be a few residents on the second to back row there that might want to see those samples. So, I mean, the decision's already made, but they may want to see what they're getting. Item 5B, conduct a public hearing on the proposed budget for fiscal year 2027. Making this presentation is Finance Director Wendy Badgett.

I'm ready to stand up. I've been freezing sitting up there in the front row.

I think Christoph has some sweaters in his office that he could give you.

okay good evening mayor and council i'm here tonight to present items 5 b c d and e representing the public hearings for the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget and the fiscal year 27 ad valorem tax rate as well as the required actions at the conclusion of each one of those hearings to comply with state statute these are required to be two separate hearings and council items to follow. However, this presentation is simple and it will cover the information and action considered for for both of those hearings and actions. To give an overview, the budget development process is a seven to eight month coordinated effort between the city council, city manager and staff, putting a lot of time and thought into prudent decision making. for the upcoming fiscal year, as well as holding work sessions and meetings that are open to the public for input. The intensive and lengthy process for the fiscal year 27 budget began with staff on February 11th. Over the next four months, departments and city management identified and formalized budget adjustments and supplemental requests before council was shown the framework of the budget at their June and July budget strategy sessions this year. During the month of August, council set the ceiling on the tax rate. The city manager submitted the proposed budget and a council budget work session was held. Now, after tonight's public hearings, this year's budget development process will conclude tomorrow night with council's adoption of the fiscal year 2027 budget and tax rate. Specific topics and challenges considered in the fiscal year 2027 budget process included economic structural composition employee retention and attraction keeping pace with city growth and our utility rates. Since the manager submitted the proposed budget to the council in August, discussions with council and updates to operational drivers have led to a few updates in the city manager's proposed budget. Combined expenses of $231.7 million decreased by $49,000 with adjustments across the general, debt service, utility, employee benefits, and our capital improvement funds. And our combined revenues of 229.3 million increased slightly by 23,000 with adjustments across the general and capital improvement funds. Full-time employees have remained unchanged since our proposed budget. Looking more closely at the revised proposed budget for the general fund, revenues were increased to reflect new and adjusted emergency service ambulance fees. On the expense side, we reduced the cost for a leadership and strategic planning session and the transfer to the CIP program. We also increased the electricity costs for the wet zone. And the debt service and utility funds were both revised to reflect updated debt service costs based on the finalized payment schedule following the August debt sale. In the employee benefits fund, expenses were increased to reflect updated stop loss coverage that was recently approved by council. And in the capital improvement funds, revenues and expenses were both reduced to reflect a reduction to the income-based sidewalk project. Highlights of the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget major initiatives as revised include a variety of items citywide, and these include to keep employee compensation competitive, a salary survey was conducted this summer for our general government positions. These employees will receive various salary study adjustments to bring them closer to our competitive market on October 1st, plus up to a 2% performance-based merit increase on their anniversary date throughout the year. Public safety will receive their scheduled steps as well as compensation enhancements to fire captain and communication positions. Additionally, specific adjustments have been made to address pay compression in our police department. The budget also includes the addition of eight and a half percent equivalent positions, including five and a half positions in the general fund, one in the utility fund and two in the drainage fund. Increase funding for various service and operational improvements, including enhanced technology for IT and our public works department, new fleet for public works and our police department, as well as enhanced supplies for our ball fields. And ending with funding to address the needs of some of our boards and commissions and strategic partners that's continuing this year. The initiatives of the proposed budget are supported by a variety of revenue sources such as no increase in the property tax rate, a 1% projected increase in sales tax revenue, an increase in ambulance service volume as well as new and additional ambulance service fees, a projected increase in wet zone attendance next summer, and healthy investment income due to the market environment. Finally, our CIP program is proposed to include carry forward funding and project allocations of approximately $174 million and new fiscal year 27 funding and project allocations of $54 million for a total fiscal year 27 funding of $228 million. Switching over to the proposed tax rate. Ad valorem, or property taxes, are collected by local governments in two different components. Operations and maintenance, or what we call O&M, and these are to fund city operations and interest in sinking, or what's called INS, to fund our debt obligations. As shown in the green highlighted boxes, in August, the city manager presented the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget based on a tax rate just shy of 81 cents, with council setting the proposed tax rate ceiling AT THE HIGHER VOTER RATE APPROVAL OF JUST UNDER 87 CENTS TO ALLOW MAXIMUM FLEXIBILITY DURING THE REMAINDER OF THE BUDGET PROCESS. FOLLOWING ONGOING BUDGET DISCUSSIONS, THE TAX RATE OF 80.7891 CENTS PER 100 TAXABLE VALUE AS INCLUDED IN THE CITY MANAGER'S FISCAL YEAR 2027 ORIGINAL PROPOSED BUDGET WILL REMAIN UNCHANGED AND WILL BE PRESENTED FOR ADOPTION IN TOMORROW NIGHT'S VOTE. If approved tomorrow night as proposed, the tax rate will be effective October 1st and include an operations and maintenance tax rate of 53.8841 cents and an INS debt service tax rate of 26.9050, which are both unchanged from the current adopted tax rate. this concludes the presentation for the fiscal year 2027 budget and tax rate public hearings and i'll open up the floor for questions comments and the requested for actions for tonight's hearings all right thank you wendy appreciate the presentation um council what questions do you have

Wendy, a couple questions for you. So we recognize there's a quote unquote deficit in a few of our funds, right? General fund being one of those, debt service fund being another one, and the utility fund being the third. In total, that's, I don't know what those three are specifically, but if you net it out with the additional increases in some of the other funds, it's almost 2.5 million. Can you tell us about the intentionality behind those decisions?

Sure. The general fund, the reason that we're showing a deficit in that is because council had made the decision to move $1.3 million of funding that was moved into the general fund a couple of years ago when we closed out our economic development fund. So the choice this year was to move that money back over into the economic development fund for future incentives. The difference, you can see, I believe the deficit was about half of that amount in the general fund. Really, the general fund is absorbing, was able to sufficiently cover at least half of MONEY THAT'S GOING BACK. THE UTILITY FUND, WE, COUNCIL OF COURSE STRUGGLED WITH, YOU KNOW, ADJUSTING THE RATES THIS YEAR WITH NORTH TEXAS MUNICIPAL WATER DISTRICT GOING UP SO HIGH, OUR COST, OUR WHOLESALE COST, AS WELL AS WITH THE CITY OF GARLAND AND OUR I&I ISSUE, SO THIS WAS KIND OF A NEGOTIATION WHERE WE'RE DOING THE BEST WE CAN TO SET RATES WHERE WE CAN, BUT THEN THE FUND'S GOING TO TAKE A LITTLE BIT OF THE IMPACT AS WELL. That's the utility fund. And then the debt service fund that unfortunately is it's a product of what we're seeing in today's economy with the high protest values and the way that those calculate into the state of Texas is required truth and taxation tax rate calculation worksheet that all municipalities must use. And because of that, the way that calculation works, it's going to swing this. Last year, we were up. The year before that, we were down. So it's going to kind of swing up and down, but we're not going to be at a point where we're not going to make our debt payments. It's not an issue with making debt payments. It's just a product of that calculation.

So let's just touch on the debt service for just a moment. So I recall we had a discussion about intentionally being a little bit more aggressive with our payback to free up some debt capacity. Could that be part of this as well? Does that feed into the math for how this is calculated? And maybe, Mike, if you understand my question, hopefully it's clear.

Yes. No, this is a product of timing due to those protest values coming in after our budget of March 31. So when we do the budget, the March 31 account balance is what's reflected. So the actual balance is higher right now at 4.9. So basically we got delayed receipts due to property tax protests. And those are now funding debt service instead of fiscal It's now being funded in fiscal 27. So as part of targeting the tax rate of 269050, that does play in. So if it was not there, then the debt service that was targeted would have been lower because we're holding the tax rate flat. But this is a product of timing due to protest values.

Got it. Okay. Thank you. That's helpful. And then on the general fund specifically, that I know you mentioned the economic development transfer there, and that's very valid. I do want to also point out that council could very well make that number zero by adopting a higher M&O rate, correct?

Absolutely.

The council made a conscious decision this year to say we want to hold the rate steady.

Right.

Right. So that really is a council decision. And so we heard a comment earlier tonight about using the extra fund balance to buy down the rate, which is really what that's effectively doing. And I've expressed reservations about that in the past. In fact, my colleague here to my left actually proposed that last year. And that was an idea that we kind of tossed around. We had pretty good dialogue about that. And I was pretty adamant that we not do that because I was very protective of maintaining a healthy fund balance because that rainy day fund is really important. However, it is also taxpayer dollars and we have to recognize that. And so I think we struck a really good balance this year and I appreciate that dialogue last year because it helped form up in my mind about what would be the right call for this year. And I think we found, again, a good balance where we're trying to act in the best interest of our constituents and our taxpayers and in our community, while also recognizing that we have a fiduciary duty to maintain a healthy fund balance so that when we do come upon hard times that we have funds there to continue to support those who work hard for our community as well and you can see from the budget the primary expense that we have as a community is personnel I mean that's where most of our funding goes and the vast majority of that is going to be in three departments that's police fire and public works exactly just the fact of the fact of the fact of the matter um Utility fund, I think, perfect explanation. That's exactly, and we did wrestle with that decision, so I appreciate that. I think that's really the only questions I had just because that was primarily a really important thing to kind of talk about. You know, we're not the federal government. We don't get to just issue a whole bunch of treasury notes and rack up a ton of long-term debt into the trillions. We're a community that has to, generally speaking, have a balanced budget year to year. And sometimes that ebbs and flows and sometimes we have a little bit extra and sometimes we're a little below. And so we strive to set a tax rate that balances that need with the services that we're providing our community. So again, thank you. Council, were there other questions for staff before I open the public hearing on this item?

Not a question, but just a thank you. You know, I think we have the easy job. We come in here in June time frame in June, July, and we consider what y'all have been working on since February. So hats off to you and all your team and city manager's office and all the department heads, because it's a it's an annual thing that you do. And we're going to prove this thing hopefully tomorrow night. And then come February, you're going to start that process all over again for FY28. So just a lot of hard work. Thank you for that.

Appreciate that and I do appreciate I appreciate Council as well and thank you all this was a really hard budget year and really a lot of hard decisions that were made across the board and the dialogue was great working with staff and you know getting all the decisions made it was a pretty easy process working with all of you this summer.

And you mentioned city manager's office, but particularly our interim city manager who came in right at the beginning of this process and had to wrangle all the different departments and pull together a staff who was maybe uncertain or concerned about what the future held. And I'm grateful for all of our department heads that were able to make that work, that dialogue, and make that all work together. All right. With that, thank you, Wendy. I'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing. So it is 9 20 PM. Uh, this is the public hearing for item five B. I do have one speaker form. That's for Beth Crockett. Ms. Crockett. Yeah, she's still here. So Ms. Crockett, if you want to come down to the front and, uh, state your name and city of residence and you will have three minutes. And if there is anyone else who wishes to speak during this public hearing, again, their speaker forms in the back left corner of the room. And we also have another public hearing on item five D which is the tax rate.

Beth Crockett, Rowlett. I just wanted to ask one more time tonight before y'all approve this budget to please find some funding for a coil house. The Keep Rowlett Beautiful people have been over there and cleaned the yard and worked on the pollinator garden and everything to try to make it look better. And we need to do something to keep this house from deteriorating any further. It's eligible to be on the state register of historical homes and also on the federal state, the federal register of historical homes. It's so important to find the money. I know that it's a little late in the budget year to do it, but please, during this year, try to find the money to do that.

Thank you, ma'am. Was there anyone else from the public who wished to speak on item 5B? All right. Seeing none, we will close the public hearing at 9 22 PM. Uh, with that comment in mind, uh, Mr. Bauer, can you talk to us kind of about the funding for the coil house specifically?

Yes, we do have funding for the coil house. It may not be sufficient for everything council wants to do until that's determined, but we will be taking action before the end of the year to make sure that the exterior finish of the home is airtight and protected and doesn't deteriorate any further. And then we'll come back to council with some design ideas and design opportunities for you to give us some policy direction about where you want to go and cost estimates about how to actually move forward to accomplish that objective. That's the plan moving forward on the coil house.

So if in the coming year the council received that information and let's say that to remediate the interior and get the coil house back into ship shape, it was a half million dollars. Does the city have enough funding in our general fund balance to cover something like that? Or would you propose that come from a different funding source?

I would love to have that conversation at that time, sir. Certainly, you do have funding in the fund balance, but as you said, we also want to make sure that we're carefully watching that fund balance, but that's certainly one source of potentially others that could be considered at that time.

Okay. Is there anything strategically from a budget standpoint that we could or should be doing to better allocate funding at this point, or is it because we don't have the information really to make that decision at this time?

I THINK IT'S CLEARLY BECAUSE WE DON'T HAVE THE POLICY DIRECTION ABOUT WHAT WE WANT TO ACCOMPLISH THAT PROPERTY, SO WE DO NOT HAVE A COST ESTIMATE IN LUNCH TO PLAN AND PROVIDE THE FUNDING AND MAKE IT AVAILABLE. WE DO HAVE, AGAIN, TOP OF MY HEAD, A LITTLE WRONG, ABOUT $300,000, WHICH HAS ALREADY BEEN ALLOCATED. WE WILL NOT BE SPENDING ALL OF THAT ON THE WHAT WE NEED TO DO TO MAKE SURE THE FEATURE DOESN'T DETERIORATE ANY FURTHER FROM AN EXTERIOR SHELL PERSPECTIVE SO WE WILL HAVE MONEY TO MOVE FORWARD WITH THE DESIGN PROCESS AND GET MORE INFORMATION FOR COUNCIL TO MAKE ADDITIONAL POLICY DECISIONS.

THANK YOU. COUNCIL, OTHER QUESTIONS?

Yeah, mayor. If I could, uh, specifically about coil house and security, uh, have we taken additional measures one to secure underneath the home such that people cannot crawl underneath it into? Have we increased security? Make sure that the doors are locked every night that, uh, others can't get in it and that it is a secure and checked on a regular basis.

Yes, we now have an SOP, which has the facility being inspected on a regular basis. We also have an alarm on the property, which has been put in place and turned on, so that if there is somebody does break into the facility, we're aware of it immediately.

Is it a daily touch point such that someone is going by and they're checking the door, checking that there's no one underneath the building, et cetera?

Yes, sir.

council any other questions all right with that we will move on to item 5c consider action to postpone the vote to approve the proposed budget for fiscal year 2027 to september 16 2026 and announce the date time and location of the vote to approve the budget for fiscal year 2027. wendy is there specific motion language for this item uh let's can we pull up that presentation there we go page 172 ALL RIGHT, COUNCIL, I WILL ENTERTAIN A MOTION, UNLESS THERE'S ANY QUESTIONS ON THIS ITEM, WHICH IF THERE WASN'T ON THE LAST ONE, I HOPE THERE'S NOT ON THIS ONE. I SEE A MOTION BY MR. BOWERS.

THANK YOU, MAYOR. I MOVE THAT THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF RYLETTE POSTPONE THE VOTE ON ADOPTION OF THE FISCAL YEAR 2027 BUDGET TO WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2026 AT 530 P.M. IN THE CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS LOCATED AT 4000 MAIN STREET, RYLETTE, TEXAS.

ALL RIGHT, WE HAVE A MOTION TO Do all that. Second by Mr. Holston?

I'll second it.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All right. Let's call the vote, please. All right. And that carries unanimously. Next, we'll move to item 5C. Consider, sorry, 5D. I knew that didn't look right. Item 5D, conduct a public hearing on the ad valorem tax rate for fiscal year 2027. Do we have a presentation on this item or it's dovetailed with the other item, Wendy? Same presentation. Okay. In that case, we will open the public hearing. It's 927 p.m. Do we have anyone from the public who wish to speak on item 5D, which is the ad valorem tax rate? All right. Seeing none, we will close the public hearing at 927 p.m. and move to item 5E, which is to announce the date, time, and location of the vote to approve the ad valorem tax rate for fiscal year 2027. And... I'm going to read that. The City of Rowlett Council will vote on the tax rate on Wednesday, September 16th, 2026 at 5.30 p.m. in the Council Chambers located at 4000 Main Street, Rowlett, Texas 75088. The public is invited to attend. Anything else we need to do on that item? Does that complete that? Very good. Thank you. With that, we'll move to item 5F, consider action to adopt a resolution appointing members to the downtown advisory board. So council, I do not have a presentation on this item. We had a discussion yesterday and interviewed the folks. Finance staff, thank you very much. Thank you, thank you, thank you all for being here this evening. I know it was a little bit later maybe than you anticipated, but we appreciate it. We will see you all again tomorrow at 5.30. Thank you. As I was mentioning, Downtown Advisory Board do not have a presentation, but we interviewed the candidates last night. We have a slate of candidates that is included in the resolution for item 5F. Are there any questions or comments? All right, then I will entertain a motion on item 5F. I see a motion by Mr. Fassett.

Excuse me, I make a motion to adopt a resolution adopting the members to the downtown advisory board as stated and as written with the names.

All right, we have a motion to approve the item as presented and a second by Mr. Gazar. SECOND. I HAVE A MOTION AND A SECOND TO APPROVE THE ITEM AS WRITTEN. AGAIN, THE MEMBERS OF THAT BOARD ARE SHELBY COLEMAN, JULIE CONDY, VIVEK RAJBHAK, MARTIN MALLOY, JESSICA HARP, JESSICA LACHLIER, BROOK ALLEN, AND MICHAEL GALLOPS. WE DO ALSO HAVE TWO EX OFFICIO MEMBERS, CAITLIN HOLLAND WITH DART AND EMILY STUPNICK WITH THE RALLET CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. COUNCIL MEMBERS FASSET AND KAZAR WILL SERVE AS THE COUNCIL LIAISONS TO THIS BOARD. ANY DISCUSSION BEFORE WE CALL THE VOTE? Thank you to all of those who have stepped up to serve, not just on this particular moment, but over the past few years. Let's go ahead and call the vote, please. All right, and that carries unanimously. Next, we'll move on to item 5G. Consider action to adopt a resolution authorizing amendment number four to the professional services agreement with Hafer Welker LLC for design services for the animal services building in an amount not to exceed $550,000, 540,000 of which FOR SCHEMATIC DESIGN, 25%. DESIGN DEVELOPMENT, 25%. CONSTRUCTION DOCUMENTS, 30%. BIDDING AND NEGOTIATION, 2%. AND CONSTRUCTION ADMINISTRATION, 18%. AND UP TO $10,000 FOR WHICH IS CIVIL ENGINEERING REIMBURSABLE EXPENSES. AUTHORIZING THE INTERIM CITY MANAGER OR HIS DESIGNATED TO EXECUTE AMENDMENT NUMBER 4 AND ALL NECESSARY AND RELATED DOCUMENTS TO EFFECTUATE SAID PURCHASE AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE. LYNETTE.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. The purpose of this item is to provide information pertaining to the design contract for a new animal services facility. Currently the city has a professional service agreement with Haverwelker LLC for the design of a new municipal complex. Staff is asking for consideration of a fourth amendment to this contract focused on the architectural and engineering services for the animal services facility to be located at 8502 Shrady Road. Services will range through design, bidding, and construction administration. On July 16th of 2024, Council approved Haver Welker to provide architectural and engineering services for the new municipal complex, which consisted of a city hall, public safety administration building, and the animal services building. On March 16th of 2026, Council directed staff to pause the design of the municipal complex at Hereford Park and identify alternative locations to house the components of the municipal complex. In June of this year, Haver Welker was approved to perform a site suitability assessment study, and on September 1st, they submitted a proposal for the design of the new animal services facility at 8502 Shreddy Road. The proposed facility will be designed to support current and future animal services operations, including intake and adoption areas, indoor and outdoor dog housing, exercise and play areas, dedicated cat housing, veterinary treatment and surgery, and staff and operational support spaces. With the proposed contract amendment, we would continue to utilize Haver Welker as the lead designer, Westwood as the civil engineer and landscape architect, and Animal Arts as the animal shelter specialist for the animal services facility. Swinderton will continue serving in the role of CMAR, or construction manager at risk, With the approval of this amendment, the approximate timeline for the design, development, and construction documents of the Animal Services Facility is seven to nine months. Place and completion of this phase in the second quarter of 2027. This will be followed by two to four months of permitting, bidding, and subcontractor selection. The CMAR Swinderton will provide a timeline for construction once the design of this facility has been completed, which is approximately, given approval tonight, five months from now. Staff requests the approval of the Fourth Amendment to the Professional Service Agreement with Haver Welker for the design services of the Animal Service Facility at 8502 Shrady Road. Upon approval, the project team will advance the schematic design, move into design development and construction documents, and solicit construction pricing. During this process, we will return to City Council for design and construction authorization as required. And before I ask for questions, I did want to address what came up earlier this evening about the budget. In 2023, the bond election 8.4 million was allocated for animal services. To date, 5.2 million has been released. We have approximately 3 million that is yet to be released. And to date, $177,000 has been spent on this project. Any questions?

Council, what questions do you have?

I have a couple questions.

Yes, sir.

Obviously, a comment made earlier, this is like two pieces for me. One is to address the concern that was with regards to the sound components of this. I'd like for it to be known that we had a discussion with the fire chief direction to make sure how that would work. I don't know if the city manager wants to comment on how that actually went, but to know that we actually addressed that, that's very concerning for us as well to note that. The second thing, right quick, is the outcome that came from the advisory board. And correct me if I missed something here, because this is part of the thing. There was a conversation made that they would sit down with the advisory board.

Yeah, so let's, if we can, let's have our interim city manager address the first part, the question about the fire. And then I'd like Council Member Fassett, since he's our animal services advisory.

Perfect, thank you.

Liaison is the right word I'm looking for. So, Mr. Bauer, can you address the fire situation?

Absolutely, absolutely. And the request, and one of the actually requests from the Animal Services Advisory Board was that we do a noise study, and we actually are in the process of doing that. we actually had staff out there today with decibel meters and ran some tests with ambulances and fire engines on location trying to get some some baseline information as we move forward in that process and also it takes a little while to find a consultant to come out there and do the study so we wanted to actually get in front of it a little bit The big thing is that you know again they turn on their Sirens when they leave the site not right when they're on the site and also their noise is coming in the front It's not out the side so If you're right in front of the engine, it's quite loud. If you're to the side, it's much more diminished. And so we did some testing on that today, but we do take the noise concern seriously. We will do more work and analysis on that and trying to make sure that we have a facility that we propose back to you that addresses that concern. There will be a couple more steps in this process. This property has to be rezoned. We're going to the Planning and Zoning Commission on the 22nd, and then we're coming back to council for a public hearing. Our expectation is that we'll have much more information and data on that issue by the time we come back to the council for that public hearing on the zoning request, and that'll be, of course, the decision the council makes at that point. We'll determine whether we fully move forward on this project at this location.

Mr. Fassett, can you address the topic of the Animal Shelter Advisory Board meeting?

Yes. Council received a presentation back on 8-3. I believe it was Ms. Kristoff. But anyway, we got a presentation on all the options and all the different places that are being looked at, and Shrady being one of them. We looked at that and then the council requested that the advisory board at their next meeting, which was 820, received the same presentation, which they did. The advisory board for the shelter had a lot of questions about it. They had a lot of concerns about that location. One of the things that they left it with, and there was one particular person that lived behind there and said that they don't, the fire station doesn't bother them, they don't hear the sirens. But that being said, they do have a lot of concerns, but they were also open to that if we're going to go with Shrady, that there would be an official sound study that would be done um you know because you know again the main concern is the the animals um and to make sure that this is not going to be more difficult for them um so they left it with that with the expectation that there would be or the hope not expectation they're an advisory board but with the hope that we would have a sound study that helped

So Mr. Fassett, can you address the comment that was made by one of the commenters tonight that there was a unanimous vote by the Animal Shelter Advisory Board to reject this as a location?

I need to see the minutes on that. I don't know. I don't remember it being a unanimous vote. They raised a lot of concerns regarding it, and legitimate concerns. Concerns, you know, there's a lot of other options that we have to consider. We want to get this done as quickly as possible, but we don't want the haste and we don't want to GO DOWN A ROAD THAT WE'RE GOING TO REGRET LATER. SO THAT BEING SAID, I DON'T KNOW THAT IT WAS A UNANIMOUS DECISION. WHAT WAS UNANIMOUS WAS THAT IF WE AS ‑‑ BECAUSE THEY DO UNDERSTAND THEIR ADVISORY BOARD AND THEY CAN ONLY ADVISE. BUT IF WE WENT WITH SHRADY, THEY WERE ASKING THAT WE WOULD HAVE ‑‑ THAT WAS UNANIMOUS, THAT WE WOULD HAVE A SOUND STUDY. DOES THAT HELP, MAYOR?

I mean, I remember being when we had the discussion in our work session, the feedback there was unless there were major unless there was major opposition or new information that was presented. And I'm going a bit off of memory and a bit off the fact that I watched this meeting a little while ago earlier today. Unless there was major opposition or new information that we hadn't considered through our dialogue, then we were somewhat good to move forward with this location. The new information, I'm not hearing any new information from what you had just shared that would deter me away from this location. What I might be hearing is that there may be major opposition. Minal, you were at this meeting, right?

That is correct.

So was there a motion? Was there a vote? And was it unanimous? And if so, what was the nature of that motion?

The staff presented the item to the Animal Services Advisory Board. We had a robust discussion regarding the location of this facility. There was commentary regarding the ability for volunteers to access the facility, et cetera. But ultimately, we sought their consensus and said, what is your consensus as it relates to The subject property and at that point they said if council chooses to proceed with this location That they would want a noise study conducted You know my if I if I may I think the Because I don't think that's in dispute I think I

I don't want to speak 100% for the advisory board, but I think they do understand our challenges and that we want to get this done. They want to get this done. They have concerns, but I think they do trust that if we go at that location, we will find ways to resolve it. They the concern about the noise study. I think the fact that that has not been done, if we intend to do it, I OK, but the fact that it's not included in this report, it's not included in this resolution. I think I mean, I just think we have to be cognizant of the past and the fear of the past and the challenges that our citizens feel. And I think they would like to see that in there. And then and I would argue from my position that allows us as counsel to make a more informed decision about this location. But also it provides the citizens to have more input once they know the facts and what the reality is, because the reality is we may just have to go there. But let's be able to say that we checked off all the boxes and we looked at every possible option. And so I think it's more about it's not in there. I think the wording, I mean, I got to tell you when I read it, and I'm not an attorney, but I find the wording almost like this, it feels like a done deal. I know it's not. I know there's going to be other votes, but that's the perception that people have on that.

Can we get some clarity on why? Because in my mind, there might be a possibility to approve this the same time that we consider the zoning. Right? And so what is the impetus to hold this decision tonight? Does it give Hafer-Welker a head start on the work or what does it allow, what advantage does it give us?

A couple of things. One is, of course, Hafer-Welker is not going to do the noise study. They don't have that capability. It'll be somebody else to do the noise study. But what this allows us to move forward is actually right. Usually when we go through a zoning process, there needs to be some information given about the design of the project. and so when we bring this back to council at a public hearing we want to be able to have some additional information about how this fits on the site as part of that process we can't get there without having the design consultant do that work so we need to do some work about the actual site plan so that you guys can have some comfort about Does this fit? Before we go through and rezone it, I think that's reasonable information, reasonable questions for you to ask. This gets us headed in the direction of being able to answer those questions on the site plan.

So let me pause you, only because I want to be sure everybody hears that answer, and we have some technology challenges facing us right now. I'm going to ask you to answer that question again, if you don't mind, but not right at this moment. There was, I did receive a message from a resident here just wanting to be sure that there was not an outdoor warning siren on this property. I'm looking at our outdoor warning siren map right now, and there is not an outdoor warning siren on this property. The closest one I'm seeing is at near Hereforth Elementary, which is Cheesa Road and Miller Road. And then I see another one in the Rockwall County part of Rowlett near Collins Lake Point Elementary, so on Scenic Drive. Those are the two closest. Oh, I see another one, sorry, at Cheesa and near Pearson. So Woodside would be the cross street there, yeah. So those are the nearest three outdoor warning sirens. So not one physically at Fire Station Two.

Okay, technology resolved.

Good. Okay. Answer that question one more time. What competitive, not competitive advantage, what advantage does it give us to approve this tonight versus waiting until the meeting on when the public hearing and the SUP is, not SUP, the zoning case is considered?

Again, two answers to that question. One is, you know, we can keep on the timeline we presented regarding getting this project fully designed and move forward if council decides to continue to move forward with this project. The other piece is that when we come forward with you for the public hearing regarding the zone change, we can have additional information about the suitability of this site based on the work of the architect and the civil engineer between now and then.

What other questions we have miss facet.

Make sure understand that then so if we were to table or delay for a couple weeks that it doesn't cause a big impact we can still move forward with that property understanding that we were so no matter what for the city to utilize was just say that we went somewhere else for them to show that that property still have to be was rezone but as you people government correct.

Again, if we decide to use it for government instead of selling it to somebody else, yes. I guess, again, the question is how much information do you want when you make that zoning decision?

OK, well, then my answer is I'd like to know all the facts related to the sound, because what if the sound issue is so loud and so high that it becomes cost prohibitive? So again, I'm more leaning towards let's make sure we know all the facts. Let's make an informed decision. And if And that way we can wait on the count. I mean, I'm more like waiting. I'm more about waiting a little bit longer. Let's get that information. That way the entire council can make an informed decision. And then we can proceed with the rezoning at that point.

Mayor, if I could make a few comments. Please. First of all, I want to thank staff for particularly pulling this item and focusing on the animal shelter. This is a great place to be in that we're talking about building this facility. And so as I think about building facilities, I think the word suitability and feasibility. Christoph, you mentioned suitability. Suitability meaning, can you build this building on that piece of property? Feasibility meaning, is there an expert such as animal arts? You presented them in your presentation. Who are they? What do they do? Do they examine the feasibility of an animal shelter? I've built all kinds of office space and I can tell you where to build it, not build it. I can't tell you the first thing about building an animal shelter.

That's exactly the purpose of bringing them on board at this point, sir, is to have them give us an opinion about the suitability of this site for this purpose. They will be here on the current schedule when this item comes before you for a zone change to give you their professional opinion on that matter. If we approve this tonight. If we do not approve this tonight, they will not be here when that decision comes back to you later on.

Okay. So I don't know anything about animal arts, not run across them in my limited exposure to life. But can you tell us what they do?

They specialize in designing animal shelters.

Okay. And the location of animal shelters.

That's certainly part of the process, sir.

Okay. Also, I heard tonight a licensed sound study. Are we going to conduct that as well?

Yes, we are.

Okay. And then the other thing I saw or heard tonight was a financial analysis. And I see that this presentation takes our contractor all the way from design development to construction drawings.

Construction administration, all the way through construction administration.

Yeah, construction drawings and then construction administration. It is your plan, evidently, to get those construction drawings issued to contractors who will bid on them. At that point, we would be able to complete a financial analysis of what this will actually cost. That's kind of the process.

Well before that, sir. We're bringing on Swinnerton, who is our construction manager at risk. Their responsibility is doing what we call pre-construction services, which includes actually analyzing and giving us cost estimates. They will do detailed cost estimation at every phase of design, schematic, design development, construction drawings. And then when we move into the construction drawings, before we get to the final construction drawings, we'll actually negotiate what's called a guaranteed maximum price. And we'll bring forward a guaranteed maximum price amendment to council for consideration at that time. When you execute that guaranteed maximum price, that will be your price. And their job is then to deliver that project for that price based on the amendment. But we will get a cost estimation as soon as we get them on board, and that's the other benefit, actually, thank you for asking that question, of bringing this group on now, because then we can bring Swinnerton together with Hoffa Welker, they can take a look at this site, and they can actually start refining their cost estimation as soon as possible. Because right now, we do not have what I think of as a credible cost estimate for this project.

We've got one more question, Mayor, if you may. When do we anticipate that we will have the license sound study?

I don't have that answer, sir, but my intention is to have it to you before the public hearing, before this council on the zone change.

And what's that date? October 20th.

October 20th.

I also think it's hard for us being in the position that we're in, which was we designed a building on a property that was not suitable according to where we're at today. And we don't want to repeat that issue. And we don't want to design something that's not suitable or feasible. And so not knowing who Animal Arts is or what their capabilities are, I know that's your responsibility. That's kind of new news. But I'm going to say that it's critical for us to get over those two hurdles before we ever approve something. Does that make sense?

No.

to get over the hurdles of the sound study or the feasibility and suitability.

Feasibility, suitability, financial analysis, sound study. All of those issues before we make a decision.

So, I mean, I feel like that's a cart and a horse situation based on what Mr. Bauer just said because you have to have the expertise to design the site to determine a probable cost before you have the financial analysis. You can't have the financial analysis before you make the decision.

So, yeah, I understand that. I just think there's a whole picture here. There's a whole process. And I'm learning more pieces tonight than I knew before I came. I didn't know about animal arts, nor did our citizens know about that, that we're actually going to conduct a feasibility and suitability study.

Do they conduct a suitability and feasibility study? I didn't hear that description.

We were thrown around terms that I don't know the meaning of. We're going to get an opinion from a design firm about the suitability of this site for this purpose. That's not a study. That's an opinion.

It's very similar to the partnership that both Hafer, Walker, and Spenderton have with the public safety consultant who's advising the design of the public safety building. they're there to help guide decision making and space usage and kind of all of that stuff. I don't know that they have the, and I could be wrong, I don't know that they have the leeway to nix a space and say it's not suitable or feasible?

I think they certainly could.

You think they could, okay. Or provide that advice at the very least.

Provide that advice, exactly. That's part of their expertise they're bringing to the table. Tell us, is this a suitable place for an animal shelter? They are animal shelter expertise. To go back to a step, when we brought in Holfer-Welker for design, we went through an SOQ process, a statement of qualifications process. AND THE COUNCIL HAD A PRESENTATION REGARDING THEIR QUALIFICATIONS AND THEIR QUALIFICATIONS NOT JUST TO BUILD A PUBLIC SAFETY, TO DESIGN A PUBLIC SAFETY FACILITY BUT ALSO AN ANIMAL SHELTER, ET CETERA. SO THOSE ARE ALL QUALIFICATIONS SIMILAR TO THE GROUP WE HAVE COMING IN TO HELP US WITH HOFER WELKER PARK. THEY HAVE A SUBCONSULTANT THAT FOCUSES JUST ON PARK DEVELOPMENT. THIS IS A SUBCONSULTANT. ALL THEY DO IS ANIMAL SHELTERS. SO HOFER WELKER IS THE GENERAL. Animal Arts is the sub. Their job is to do just that, make sure that we're making good decisions about the construction, design and construction of an animal shelter.

In the location?

Absolutely. I mean, they're not going to tell us. We're not giving them four sites to look at. We're saying, will this site be suitable for this purpose? And they'll be here to answer that question for you, sir.

Other questions, comments? So this is that this is not a public hearing. Um, I, I, I will allow it in this instance only because you remember the animal, but I can't give you more than 60 seconds.

thank you

Got it. Okay. So I just want to restate what Ms. Crockett is saying only because she's not miked. Basically what she's saying is that she did not make a statement that the Animal Shelter Advisory Board voted to reject the site rather that they were recommending to the City Council to seek alternate sites. They did not make a formal motion to do that. Rather they just kind of did that through the consensus of the group. Is that a fair assessment? Thank you, ma'am. All right. Mr. Fassett, I apologize.

No, that's fine. Again, arguably, or not arguably, admittedly, I'm very new at this. I mean, what I'm looking for and what I think would be helpful in this situation is for a pause, just so we can get that, because it just seems to me there's a lot of stuff hinging on this licensed sound study. And if we could just pause it, you know, listen to the community, because I think it's really about, making sure that they have all the information so they can ask informed questions of us, but at the same time for the council to actually have that information. It just seems to me if that sound study comes back and says this is just like unbearable, well, I think that impacts a lot of our decisions. and so we're asking to go into this agreement for this location and it seems like now we gotta shift gears and go find another location so I'm asking for a pause and I guess my question is exactly how do we get there yeah so I'll answer that question first which is that simply the item could be postponed to a future meeting there could be a motion to postpone the item to a

date certain which in this case I believe would probably most likely to get the information you're looking for be October 20th at which point we would go through the process of seconding that motion any discussion and we would call a vote I do want to kind of address what your comments were which What I've heard from the community has been somewhat divided because we've had individuals stand up before us and say, build it now, move, do something. And what I just heard from you was let's pause, let's stop, let's wait until we have more information. And in my mind, I'm wondering what is the right amount of information that's going to make everyone comfortable because at the last At the last meeting where we had this discussion, Mr. Fassett, you yourself said ultimately we're going to have to make the call. We either need to do this or we need to do something else. In my recollection of the sites that we have available, this is one of the only possible sites really that we have available as a community. It was made mention tonight about the Miller Heights site. Talk about noise. Not only PGBT, but our Independence Day event is held right there, next door. And there's nothing that gets my dog more frustrated than thunder and fireworks. So, in fact, my dog, maybe she's just an anomaly, but we have a fire station right down the street, Fire Station 3, and she couldn't give a rip about that thing. If the fire alarm starts chirping, she's going to lose her mind. So to each their own. But to me, that site becomes very difficult then to be a possible option. So out of other city-owned properties, where do we go? What options do we have? We're trying to appease several facets of the population. We're trying to have it centrally located. We're trying to have it along a main drag. We're trying to have it on a city-owned property. in a place that doesn't have residential around it, no fire stations, no noise. I mean, at some point, we're trying to check too many boxes, and I don't know that we're ever going to be able to get there. Mr. Gibbs, I saw you raise your finger, so I'll stop.

So we've talked about the past and history, so let's go back in history. Where the shelter is right now, sitting on industrial. As I guess most of you know, I was over the shelter from 2009 to 2017 as the commander of the community services division. And if you also remember, there used to be a fire station. It's where the Chamber of Commerce is. And that engines, trucks, ambulances ran out of there on a daily basis with the sirens blaring coming out towards that shelter. Currently, what you have on Highway 66, Lakeview Parkway, which is not too far to the north of the shelter, is many vehicles going that way to the hospital, going to emergency calls. They're running Code 3 there. During my time from 2009 to 2017, we never got a complaint that the dogs were being upset or anything from the sirens. I still would like to have the sound test done and see what it has because it's going to be next door. I don't know if it's something that, because the property is pretty big, can we move it back a little bit in the property or we want it front facing? Those are things that we can decide. I don't think the shelter that we have now is really soundproof. But I cannot recall any issues where the staff would ever tell me that, hey, the sirens are driving the dogs and crazy. So it's just some history.

Mr. Fasten.

Yeah. And just for clarity, I don't remember that we looked at. I know I saw six. I don't know that we had a big discussion on that. I remember looking at all the dates, but I'm actually of the mindset we need to get some dirt moving. And I want to push and, you know, in truth and reporting, I like the Shrady site. I can find some challenges with it. I do like the site. I actually find it maybe one of the quietest places in the city, quite frankly. that being said i'm just trying to be responsive to the community and to our board because i i hear the comments i see the comments and i think what the community is asking can we do the sound study because even if we do the sound study it still may be the best site overall but at least we check i agree with you we can't go check every single box out there But I'm not hearing anything a two to three week delay is going to be catastrophic here Getting that sound study having that sound study. So we in council can make a completely informed decision at that point You know if I had to vote right now, I mean trading might be the best place across the board But I would like to have more information. I think our community like to have more information Mr. Bowers

I THINK PART OF WHAT YOU'RE SAYING AS FAR AS THE SOUND STUDY, COMPLETELY AGREE WITH. BUT I THINK AS FAR AS THE POSTPONEMENT, THAT CAN HAVE SOME DIFFICULTY AS FAR AS WHAT WE'RE GIVING AS COUNCIL TO MAKE THE BEST DECISION. SO INTERIM CITY MANAGER BOWER, CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG, BUT IF WE DON'T APPROVE THIS, THERE WILL BE SOME IMPLICATIONS THAT WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND BY OCTOBER 20TH WHEN WE DO GO TO REZONE IT OR NOT REZONE THE LAND SO I THINK THAT'S A VERY VALID THING TO TAKE IN CONSIDERATION UNDERSTANDING WHAT THE SITE WOULD LOOK LIKE WHAT A DESIGNABILITY LOOKS LIKE ULTIMATELY GOING INTO THAT WHOLE SPACE YEAH THE SOUND STEADY 100 DEFINITELY WANT THE SOUND STEADY BUT IF WE DON'T MOVE WITH THIS AS THE INTERIM CITY MANAGER SAID HERFORD WELKER WON'T BE ON BOARD AND AT THAT POINT THERE WILL BE SOME THINGS THAT WE DON'T HAVE TO MAKE THE BEST DECISION

Yeah, I certainly agree with that. You know, it's I think I think we have done an awful lot in trying to get you know citizens input on this thing and like you said mayor uh you know there's a lot of people saying build it build it build it and i'm ready to see dirt starting to turn but i also realize that you know the longer we we push this thing down the road and i think this is a critical thing that we need to prove tonight we kind of you know have that paralysis by analysis. We're going to keep on this and that. I do agree we need to get a sound study, but I think we can do that in conjunction with approving this and getting this thing off the dime here. So I'm really not in favor of postponing it. I understand the concerns and I respect those, but I want to move forward.

So let's take a hypothetical. Lynette, thank you. You can have a seat. I apologize for making you stand there for as long as you have. Let's do a hypothetical. Let's say tonight this item gets approved as is. We get to the October 20th meeting. We're considering the rezoning of the property. We have the sound study in hand. We have some additional information in hand from the list of contractors that were on the screen and subcontractors. We decide at that point it's not a suitable site. It's not an appropriate site. We deny the zoning. What happens with this contract that we've executed and where do we go from there? What are the next steps? We execute another amendment looking for a different site or what happens?

That's just it. We would execute an amendment looking for a different site. We'd go back to asking Hoffer-Wilthorpe to go back to the drawing board and look for different sites. Would we have spent some money on design at that point? Yes. Not a whole bunch of money because we weren't anywhere near schematic design. We would just have done some pre-work on the site plan to get you to that meeting. And, of course, bringing in the sub-consultant to actually have a conversation with you and give you their opinion. That will have a cost. it also has a benefit of giving you additional information once i want to make a decision at that point if you say stop we stop and we go look at plan b or this point c if i may no thank you mayor that actually provides a lot of clarity and it's very informative um and it's very helpful

What I'd like to ask on that, because I mean that makes, so we get to that point, if I understand it correctly, it falls apart because the sound is just unrealistic. We would just go back to square one and they would pick up and figure it out from there. What I would also propose that we do, I like that, is We're gonna have a person doing a sound study. Is there an independent consultant related to animals that can tell us what that sound study says? I don't know what the benchmark is for sound for dogs. Who's going to make that determination? What is too much sound, what is too little? So what I'm asking, in addition to the licensed person doing a sound study they're going to tell us what the decibels are but to another consultant to say i'm talking about for the community so they can see okay this is within tolerance this is not within tolerance and then i think it helps all of us including herford walker to make an informed decision yeah i i agree with that i think that's exactly where animal arts is positioned to be able to say with the experience we have in the shelters that we built and i just pulled up their website and they do

not only just shelters, but they do veterinarians and they do equine centers and all kinds of stuff. So they do a variety of animal focused designs and products and all that. They're probably the best position to be able to give us an expert opinion on whether that sound study is suitable on the border, COMPLETELY OUTRAGEOUS OR COMPLETELY TOLERABLE, LIKE TOTALLY WITHIN LIMITS.

AND WITH THAT BEING SAID, THEN, SINCE WE VOTED, IF WE APPROVED THIS TONIGHT, THEN HEARFT WALKER IS ON BOARD. THAT GROUP IS ON BOARD. WE GET OUR SOUND STUDY. ON THAT 20th MEETING, WOULD THEY BE ABLE TO COME HERE AND PROVIDE A PRESENTATION FOR US AND THE COMMUNITY?

THAT'S WHAT THEY'RE SCHEDULED TO DO, SIR.

OKAY. I'M SATISFIED.

questions I'll let this one float for a second because this has been a great discussion any other questions all right seeing none I will entertain a motion on item 5g well we can't let it just I see a motion by Mr. Britton if you push the button you were too late we're good to go thank you so much

All right. Thank you.

So I move that we adopt a resolution authorizing an amendment number four to the professional services agreement with Hofer Walker LLC for design services for the animal services building in the amount not to exceed $550,000, $540,000 for schematic design, 25% design development, 25% constructions, 30% Bidding and negotiation 2%, construction 18%, and up to $10,000 for civil engineering reimbursable expenses. Authorizing the interim city manager or his designee to execute amendment number four and all the necessary related documents to effectuate said purchase and providing an effective date.

I have a motion to approve. I see a second by Mr. Bowers.

I second.

I have a motion to approve with a second. Any discussion? All right, if there's no discussion, then let's please call the vote. And that item carries unanimously. All right, next we'll move along with our agenda. Item 5H, consider action to adopt a resolution approving and authorizing the interim city manager to execute a chapter 380 economic development agreement with La Casita Coffee Rowlett LLC for project decaf. We have our interim economic development director, David Funk, here with us.

Good evening. We're here to discuss the 380 agreement with La Casita. We'll go through a little bit of an overview of this project. This is an existing downtown business moving from a smaller space to a larger space and expanding some of their service offerings. They are seeking a specialty restaurant grant of $25,000, a facade signage grant, which is a reimbursement up to $5,000. This expansion will support their increased offerings as well as adding staff and future operating hours. The agreement includes employment performance requirements for grant forgiveness, and the Economic Development Advisory Board did recommend this unanimously. So the current operations is limited service operation, beverage and baked goods. They've got two FTEs that consist of one full-time and two part-time staff. The new operation, which is actually mirrored off of an existing operation that they have in Dallas. So they're trying to take that concept there and bring it here. So this will be table serviced, seating for approximately 30 guests. They will have the beverage, the baked goods, as well as now prepared breakfast and prepared lunch. It will be a full kitchen operation. They're committed to retaining the two FTEs that they currently have. over the time period achieving an FTE goal of 20 total over the next three-year period as they expand their operations. In the immediate near term, they will maintain their current hours and just the additional breakfast and service lunch. The future plan includes an expansion to dinner and then possible adult beverages, which would also help increase their sales tax. So currently the They're generating roughly $900 in sales tax right now. Part of that is because a good portion of their business is the baked goods, which are sales tax exempt. So right now, about 41% of their sales is taxable. So having such good data from their other operations, we're quickly able to establish that that taxable sales number is going to increase from 41% up to 51%. And it could triple, if not quadruple, sales tax collections by this business. So their commitments are, as I said, retaining those two jobs. They're going to add six new FTEs for a total of eight and seven for up to 15, then five in year three for total up to 20. And they're committed to working with us on the annual reporting. And we will give them that facade grant, especially restaurant grant. Each year we'll be responsible for confirming the FTE goals, working with the business. We're working with them on their permitting situation right now. and providing timely documentation of the grant forgiveness. So I want to spend a little bit more time on this. So again, as I've committed to you before, my numbers are always going to be conservative. So when we look at the conservative estimates placing on breakeven at nine years, I want to take a little bit of time to focus in on that. um that is based strictly on them going maintaining their current current operating hours and adding breakfast and lunch and i always do that because that's what is absolutely known so when i build my economic impacts i'm starting and what i'm going to document is my absolute no the other thing i want to point out with that number is that is based on the 1% that we get versus other cities that might get 2%. So if I was doing this for another city that collected 2%, that break even would be roughly four and a half years. So that's just information to take into account. Also, again, looking at their existing operation, they provided a very thorough breakdown of what their sales were their first year of operation at that location and then what their current sales are with all of their services breakfast lunch dinner and and adult beverages so it's very easy to forecast this out and say assuming that model is followed and up and going by year three we could be very well look be seeing a break even in in about the five-year mark um so um that that's the um long and short of that there are several items that i wanted to point out in the 380 agreement that we did notice and discussed with both the applicant as well as the city attorney there were some errors on the years in the 380 agreement So if you decide to move forward and approve this, please approve it. Please make your motion to approve as amended. The applicant two is looking at, would like to move the original date of opening to June 1st of 2027. There has been some delay and hangups with the permitting process. Again, I'm working very closely with the applicant. as well as our architect and our internal departments to get through that. We're very, very close, but we want to make sure that they have enough time to to complete the finish out. Obviously, they're anxious. Their five year lease started in September. So you can imagine they are they want to get moving very quickly. The other items is there was the The job requirements in the drafting of the document, we had a number of FTEs going to 8 in 2026, not 2027. So we have to adjust those to years 2027, 2028, and 2029. The copy that you have seen said 26, 27, 28. So those adjustments need to be made. AND I BELIEVE THAT WAS REALLY THE OTHER SECTION IN THE PROJECT MILESTONES BEING MET, WHICH IS THE SAME SITUATION MOVING INTO 27, 28, 29, FROM 2026, 2027, 2028. SO THOSE ARE THE ONLY ADJUSTMENTS THAT WE NEED TO MAKE. AND I DO APOLOGIZE TO THE CITY ATTORNEY. I BELIEVE I SENT THAT OVER INCORRECTLY. SO THAT IS ON ME. So with that, I know it was a lot of, A lot of information kind of quickly. This project is pretty straightforward. Like I said, these applicants do own four of these coffee shops. They have a parent company that is a 6,000 square foot wholesale facility. They are growing. They were able to provide anything that I asked for, usually within the hour. So with that said, I leave the floor open for questions. AND THE APPLICANT IS ALSO HERE IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS.

THANK YOU, SIR. COUNSEL, ANY IMMEDIATE QUESTIONS? MR. FASSETT.

Not really a question, but a comment. I definitely want to thank you. I've just had a chance here the past couple of days to hear you a couple of times, and I'm smarter every time I listen to you. And I really appreciate just how thorough your presentations are. And frankly, I'm just a common man. I'm not an economic guy. And you say it in a manner that even I can understand. So thank you. Thank you, sir.

Not a question, but just, you know, to the applicants here, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for being willing to come to Rowlett, especially our downtown area, and invest in that. And I'm looking forward to it.

I first of all want to challenge. My colleagues comment about being common is anything but that we want to thank you for coming to rally at thank you for the presentation just a couple questions about the 3 80 agreement. I note that the the date is 6 of 27. And Do we have benchmarks? Do we have construction schedule? Do we have ways of tracking the progress of this?

So the finish out needs to start originally with September 30. Obviously, with the permit delays, the document has a pushback to October 30. So that's sort of the first benchmark they need to get started by October 30. They then need to complete by June 1, 2027. So those are two primary benchmarks. The other benchmark for the signage or facade signage grant is the actual installation completion. And I did explain to the applicant that I will need to see the paid invoice. I need contact information for the vendor that I will be contacting the vendor to confirm. And once all that's done, then that reimbursement gets made. Grant forgiveness clauses are tied to the FTEs. So I've explained that to the applicant. There is a grant forgiveness schedule within the document. So as long as they hit that end of 2027, that forgives $10,000 of the grant. Hit 2028, forgives the next 10,000. 2029, forgives the final remaining $5,000.

YEAH, THAT'S GOOD TO HEAR. NOW, OF COURSE, WE ARE VERY HAPPY TO HAVE YOU IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. I ASSUME THAT YOU'LL BE HELPING THE APPLICANT IF THERE ARE ISSUES WITH CONTINUED PERMITTING, ISSUES LIKE THAT, THAT YOU'RE THERE TO HELP THEM GET IT ACROSS THE GOAL LINE.

YEAH, AND WE ARE COLLECTIVELY TRYING TO THINK jointly get it across the goal line very quickly. There's been a few hiccups here and there, but we should be really close to the finish line. I just hesitate to say that because I told him that last week. But we are very close. We just have one small item, which I think should be easily resolved.

Well, the old saying is that time kills deals. So get it done.

Yes, sir. All right. Any other questions?

I have a question. A couple of them, actually. Could you go back to your financials slide? I have some curiosities and some questions. Yes, sir. It says your current operation generates $900 a year as your sales tax, obviously with the majority of that being your baked goods that you intend to change. You anticipate $3,400, I guess, at some point in time in sales tax represents somewhere around $41,000 in revenue, taxable revenue, I should say. When you talk about changing some gears at some point in time, getting into dinners, Uh, so I was on the one curious size, what are you going to serve for dinner? We look for restaurants. So, um, and then on top of that, you talk about, uh, providing alcohol, uh, obviously $41,000 is not a lot, uh, in total revenue, uh, taxable revenue, uh, which will obviously be a thing about, um, how much that is alcohol, but that's not today. But I only ask the question because we talk about trying to add in up to 20 employees. And so I'm kind of wondering the anticipated, when you're talking about trying to pay this thing back, hitting those 20 employees or whatever over the next two or three years, which gets the grant payback, is what does that look like? Because I would expect you to have to have a whole lot more revenue than that in order to hire 20 people or 15 people or whatever the anticipation is for that. Because again, I'm only looking for the grant repay back consideration, which is obviously based on employment. And again, the numbers you gave it, you don't give any timelines to hit 3,400. So that's a question for you. What does that look like?

So the 3,400 is based on that first year of operation with breakfast and lunch. If you expand them to dinner and the alcoholic beverages based on similar performance at the other location that they're implementing here, that number goes up. The revenues to, not to jump in for you, The revenues too on the big goods side that don't factor into our fiscal analysis are actually rather strong. So without divulging the proprietary revenue data that they gave me, their revenues will support that number of employees. And that is also similar to, that's an even lower number of employees than what you have at that current location. And again, I adjust for that location's traffic down for this location's traffic. So if they do mirror revenues at that location, great, but I'm gonna adjust that down to kind of where I think they're gonna hit, right? If again, IF THEY ADD THE ALCOHOL. SO I BELIEVE IN THE SECOND YEAR THEY'RE MOST LIKELY GOING TO ADD THE DINNER. THAT SEEMS TO BE THE PLAN. AND THEN THAT'S GOING TO DRIVE UP, THAT'S ANOTHER SHIFT OF KITCHEN WORKERS, ANOTHER SHIFT OF WAIT STAFF, HOSTESS MOST LIKELY. SO THOSE NUMBERS START TO TICK UP. It's it's just, you know, with the big goods being, you know, you know, a big focus. We don't get the sales tax numbers on that. So it does kind of kind of skew that if I use their if I use their numbers If they were to perform like they are at this other location with the alcohol, with dinner and food sales the way they are down there, then you are looking at them pushing that number up into the 8,000, 9,000 range per year at our 1%.

and the aspects of your dinner perspective obviously bagels don't require or bakery goods doesn't require a lot of kitchen activity compared to what I'm fixing to ask you does your dinner pieces get into conversations that deal with grease traps because that's been a conversation of late also close that location are you anticipating that as being a consideration David I don't know where that we hit on that last one we talked about him building it for you but That's always a concern about making sure the funding's available for you on that piece to cover that kind of stuff.

Yeah, the grease up shouldn't be a problem with us going into dinner. Hasn't really been a big consideration for us. We're pretty excited. I think we're going to do really well here for dinner. I know there's not a lot of things outside of chains, so we're really excited to be able to offer that and give some more downtown options.

Well, we want to definitely welcome you as a restaurant concept because Lord knows we need a few more of those around. I'm just kind of curious and get into the, when you talk about the numbers, the financial numbers and the grant rate, money you're talking about being forgiven, just looking to answer those questions for you as well. I'm not, I don't know much about you other than downtown you're coming down, so we welcome you for that, obviously, but I'm just looking out for the interest of the city as well, so.

I think these numbers are pretty conservative. What we do at the coffee shop and what I've seen with our other coffee shops, we'll do more in a week at our restaurants, even just with brunch and lunch, which are all taxable items, then we'll do an entire month of sales at a coffee shop. So those numbers are pretty conservative. I want to say given our coffee shop sales here compared to the location that we're looking to mirror, we do about eight times more business a year than this coffee shop currently does.

And you'll forgive me. I'm not a coffee drinker, but you know, no, I don't need that incentive in the morning. Can you tell me where your location is at currently here in town?

So we have a location in Richardson that is currently open five days a week for brunch and lunch, seven to three. And we generate around the same numbers as we would that eight times what we're currently making at this coffee shop. And then we have another location that we're mirroring that's off of Northwest Highway and 75, that's maybe 100 square feet smaller than this location. And that also generates around that eight times mark.

And I apologize were you located right now in route said you moving down the street.

Yeah, we're we're right on Main Street. We're a little white House building of all here. Yeah, this is coffee on top.

All right. Well, we're going to welcome you in town. So thank you so much for that consideration.

So appreciate it.

Council questions. Mr. Gibbs statement.

On behalf of my wife, she's glad y'all are coming. She goes to Richardson to see y'all a lot, brings a lot of baked goods home. They'll save me some money for gas. And really, it's just welcome. Thank you.

I DO WANT TO CLARIFY ONE THING, COUNCIL, BECAUSE I KIND OF HAD THIS THOUGHT WHILE DAVID WAS MAKING HIS PRESENTATION. THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY BOARD CONSIDERED THIS ITEM BACK IN FEBRUARY, SO IT'S BEEN SEVERAL MONTHS NOW. WHEN THEY CONSIDERED IT, I'M NOT CERTAIN THAT THEY HAD ALL OF THE INFORMATION THAT DAVID JUST PROVIDED, AND I'M NOT EVEN CERTAIN THAT THE INFORMATION THAT THEY WERE PROVIDED WAS 100% ACCURATE. the EDAB was very positive about the concept, just generally speaking, the feeling in the room, if I could be so bold as to say that. They were very positive about the concept because again, these folks have built a tremendous brand that's obviously impacted our downtown and the Dallas area. And so, you know, there's tremendous positivity there. So when we look at the nine year payback period, you know, I know there were some concerns about that or questions about that that we might've seen on social media and elsewhere, but realistically, I think, For me, that is not a concern because what we have is we have a business that has proven themselves here in the community. They've been involved in what's been going on and we appreciate them. And the way that this agreement is structured, thank you for your questions, Mr. Holston, because you really pulled that out. The way that the agreement's structured is not here's all this money up front. It's a payment window, right, to ensure that these different milestones are met. I do want to clarify one thing that was said about the grease trap, or at least I think clarify it. The building already has a grease trap in it, correct? That's correct. Okay, so the grease trap's already in the building, and that's because the building... contractor, the builder, put one in there with the intent of attracting more tenants to their bottom floor. While it could have ended up being retail, it was far better for him to put a grease trap in there so that a concept like this could pretty seamlessly move into the space without having to have that upfront cost. One already does exist, which is even better. Council, other questions, comments? All right again, thank you both for your investment the community my only ask is the same ask I had for you at the eat and stay open for the events be there when the events are happening currently guys, I don't think do that I think you close up around 2, 3 o'clock because of staffing totally get that we would love to have you open when the events are going on downtown so let's make it happen. All right with that all entertain a motion. Motion by Mister Britain.

YEAH, THANK YOU, MAYOR. SO I MOVE THAT WE ADOPT RESOLUTION APPROVING AND AUTHORIZING THE INTERIM CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A CHAPTER 380 AS AMENDED DURING THE PRESENTATION, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT WITH LA CASITA COFFEE ROULETTE LLC FOR PROJECT DECAF.

WE HAVE A MOTION TO APPROVE THE ITEM AS AMENDED. SEE A SECOND BY MR. GIBBS.

I'LL SECOND.

AND WE HAVE A MOTION AND A SECOND. ANY DISCUSSION? All right. Let's call the vote, please. Mr. Kazar. And that item carries unanimously. Thank you again. We appreciate you guys. Look forward to seeing the new shop open. All right, next we'll move on to item 5I, conduct a public hearing and consider action to adopt an ordinance annexing approximately 14.87 acres of land located at 3805 Troy Road, situated in the Madison Price Survey, abstract number 257, Rockwall County, Texas, into the city of Rowlett, Texas, and approving an annexation service plan, therefore. Allison, thank you for waiting on us.

Yes, sir. Thank you, and good evening, Mayor and Council. The item before you tonight is the voluntary annexation request of approximately 14.87 acres at 3805 Troy Road. The applicant Trail Creek Partners is requesting annexation into the city of Rowlett and the property is currently located in the city's ETJ to be future proposed for single family residential development. This exhibit here is just to show you the property in relation to our ETJ and as shown, it is currently existing outside city limits. Tonight, council is being asked to conduct a public hearing regarding the proposed annexation and then following that public hearing, take action on the request of the proposed annexation for the 14.87 acres, which is anticipated to be 70 single family residential lots. Water service is provided by the East Fork Special Utility District and wastewater service is provided by the City of Rowlett in accordance with the applicable agreements. Upon annexation, the property would also receive city services such as police, fire, EMS, code enforcement, and any other applicable municipal services. This exhibit provides a closer look into the property and its frontage on Troy Road. The roadways relationship to the proposed development will transition into the maintenance responsibility of the city after the annexation. The property specifically has 685 feet of frontage along Troy Road, which is currently a Rockwell County roadway. Upon annexation, the adjacent portion of Troy Road would become the city's maintenance responsibility as previously mentioned, and the developer would remain responsible for the internal infrastructure and drainage, railroad, and roadway requirements, which will be addressed through the development review process that follows. Here is just an additional exhibit to give you a visual comparison of the proposed property and then the existing development adjacent to this site. The sanitary sewer system infrastructure has already been extended to serve this area and two downstream lift stations were upgraded as part of the trails at Cottonwood Creek development to accommodate the anticipated wastewater flows. Based on those improvements, the existing system is anticipated to have adequate capacity with final capacity and design to be confirmed through the city's engineering review in the future. The existing agreement here establishes the framework for the future development including the development standards, the infrastructure obligations, utility services with the initial zoning to be established through an associated planned development district. And tonight's staff is recommending approval of the ordinance to annex approximately 14.87 acres located at 3805 Troy Road APPROVE THE VOLUNTARY ANNEXATION REQUEST FROM TRAIL CREEK PARTNERS AND INCORPORATE THE PROPERTY INTO THE CITY OF RALLED'S CORPORATE LIMITS. THAT CONCLUDES MY PRESENTATION AND THE APPLICANT IS PRESENT TONIGHT SHOULD YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS FOR THEM. THANK YOU.

ALL RIGHT. ALLISON, A FEW QUESTIONS FOR YOU AND MAYBE FOR OTHER STAFF AS APPLICABLE. We talked a little bit about the maintenance responsibility that comes along with Troy Road, and it's that 685 feet, I think you said, to the center line of the road.

Yes, sir. Is that the right number? Okay. Yes, 685.

And give me an idea, and again, it may not be a question for you. Give me an idea of what the maintenance looks like on a road like that. Would it typically be that Rockwell County would come to us? This is Rockwell County, I believe. Rockwell County would come to us and say, we're going to replace the entire road. You're responsible for this fraction of it. You pay this portion based on that share. Is that generally how that would work? Either Munal, Christophe?

I would definitely pass that off.

Okay.

certainly those kinds of interlocal agreements are made on a regular basis so or it could be ours that we want to step in and get contribution from rockwell county but certainly wouldn't normally put in a situation where we would do half the street and leave the other half street undone you normally look for an opportunity to partner so we could do a complete width right and i guess it becomes a little bit um

it's difficult to justify to our residents who live in that neighborhood that only half the street is ours. So when they're driving to their home and they're on the opposite side of the street that we are not responsible for, we have to tell them, no, no, no, that's Rockwell County. We're only responsible over here on the other half. So I'm hopeful that, you know, that conversation would happen so that those folks would, you know, not be confused about how that works. I guess the people who move into that neighborhood.

I think the challenge, of course, in my experience, is a significant difference between county expectations regarding road maintenance and city expectations regarding road maintenance. If we partner closely with the county, we may have to default to accepting the county's sort of design standards rather than our own.

Understood.

While we only are required to annex that 680 whatever linear feet, we are required to annex the entire width of the roadway.

So can we get some clarity on that? Because I believe everything's at the center line.

Let's go to that slide. It is supposed to be the entire width or stretch of that road.

Okay.

And I think it's clarified here in the presentation if I'm not mistaken.

So it's the entirety adjacent of the adjacent portion.

Correct. Did you want the exhibit?

I don't think that changes my answer. We'll still want to coordinate the maintenance on that roadway with the county.

Yeah, the packet on page 237 reflects the center line, just so you all are aware of that. Does that have any impact on the ordinance as it's drafted, Victoria? Because it does not. Can you come off mute or turn on your mic to say that?

It does not.

Okay. Thank you. I've been in too many virtual meetings when I start saying, can you come off mute? I'm sorry. This sounds silly with Preston sitting in the room. Have we verified that Trail Creek Partners now owns this parcel of land that they're requesting to annex? That they have right to submit this application? Yes, sir. That sounds like a stupid question, but that's why I wanted to clarify it.

Okay.

And then tell me about the zoning process for this, because just annexing it, we're not zoning it at the same time. That's a separate process that we have to go through. So when will that take place?

Yes, sir. So the zoning of an annex property has to follow an approval of that annexation. So should it receive approval tonight, we will go through the appropriate steps to get a formal submittal in from the applicant. At that point, staff will conduct their normal review and get it on the next meeting agenda once any, if any comments appear are addressed.

Thank you. Do we have any idea the cost of grading and resurfacing an asphalt road on a per mile basis? This is about 0.13 miles, so I'm just trying to get, say we had to do that every five years, what would that approximate cost be?

I'm sorry, sir, I've looked at that number several times, but I would not want to give one off the top of my head.

Manal, any? No? Okay. I don't want to make anybody guess. I was just curious if anybody had that number off the top of their head. I don't suspect it's much. Asphalt is, and again, county standards versus city standards are likely to be different, and I'm not sure that we would want to maintain 685 feet to the city standards when the other distance on either end is not.

I think we do need two signs, you know, entering Rowlett, leaving Rowlett.

I like that. I do like that. All right, Council, questions? And again, we do have Preston here if you have questions for the property owner as well. All right, well, this is a public hearing. Allison, thank you very much. You can take a seat. It's 10.41 p.m. We'll open the public hearing. Do we have anyone from the public who wishes to speak? All right, seeing none, we will close the public hearing at 10.41 p.m., and I will entertain a motion. Mr. Gibbs.

I'll make a motion that we approve as presented.

Motion to approve the item as presented, and I see a second by Mr. Britton.

I second.

Motion to approve as presented, along with a second. Any discussion? Preston, one more checkbox as we go down the list. Thank you again for being here this evening to answer questions. Certainly appreciate it. I'm sure you have better places to be on a Tuesday night, but we thank you. All right, let's go ahead and call the vote, please. And that item carries unanimously. All right, at this point, members of the City Council may request topics be placed on an agenda for a subsequent meeting. Any deliberation or decision shall be limited to a proposal to place a topic on an agenda for a subsequent meeting. Were there any agenda item requests? Going once, going twice. All right, we are adjourned at 10.42 p.m. Thanks, everyone. Have a good night.